The N.C. Education Lottery is working to try and make sure 48 Cash 5 players who received $4 less than they won get their full prize.
In the Monday, Feb. 12, Carolina Cash 5 drawing, 48 tickets matched four of the five winning numbers and should have won a prize of $256. Due to an error, the players with those tickets received $252.
Alice Garland, executive director of the lottery, said that the lottery would strive to make sure those players get the full amount of their prize. She said the mistake resulted from human error involving the calculations of what the pari-mutuel prize would be. With a pari-mutuel prize, the total available prize money for a particular prize level is split between all winners of that prize level.
“It takes luck to win a prize and everyone should get the full amount of the prize they won,” Garland said. “We regret that this error happened. Today we conducted a review of safeguards that exist to prevent such an error to make sure they are understood and followed.”
Two of the winners bought their tickets through the lottery’s website and adjustments can be made to their lottery accounts to provide the extra $4.
The other 46 tickets were purchased in traditional retail locations.
The lottery is asking anyone who had a ticket that matched four of the five numbers in Monday’s drawing to call 1-888-732-6235 so that a review can be done. If the lottery can establish that those callers had a winning ticket matching four out of five balls in Monday’s drawing, then it can send a check to the players to make up the difference.
