Some Virginia lottery players of the Mega Millions game were sold tickets printed under recently ended rules for the game, essentially meaning their tickets had no chance of winning.
The lottery, however, announced it would refund the misprinted tickets before the Mega Millions drawing on October 31. The lottery did encourage players who bought the tickets to exchange them for a refund before the drawing, but said it will allow refunds for up to 180 days as well as honoring smaller prizes.
The tickets were sold in Virginia between 10:45 and 11:51 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27 and did not reflect changes in the game’s available numbers.
While Mega Millions odds are long anyway—a 0.00000033 percent chance of winning—these tickets were printed under rules that ended the previous week. The lottery said at least 182 tickets were sold that have no chance of winning — and there may have been as many as 628 plays with no chance, depending on the Mega Ball number drawn.
An update to the Mega Millions game went into effect Saturday, Oct. 28. The cost of a ticket doubled from $1 to $2, and the starting jackpot increased from $15 million to $40 million. To win Mega Millions under the new rules, players must match five white balls from 1 to 70 and one Mega Ball number from 1 to 25. In the previous game, players chose five numbers from a field of one to 75 and one Mega Ball from one to 15.
Therefore, 182 tickets sold with a number higher than 70 could not win. Also, had the Mega Ball been above 15, then 628 tickets would have had no chance to win. Fortunately, neither of the two scenarios played out in the drawing October 31 with no number higher than 70 and the Mega Ball at 12. The $40 million jackboot was not claimed and rolled over to the next drawing.
Though the numbers of affected players were small, the lottery said it worked to correct the situation.
“We’ve been working to get the word out to those Mega Millions players because it’s important for every ticket to have the same chance of winning a prize,” said John Hagerty, Virginia Lottery spokesperson in a press statement. “Even though relatively few people are impacted, we want them to know that all of those tickets can be refunded along with the price of a new ticket, and any prizes won will be honored.”
