Hoosier Lottery to honor 632 tickets sold mistakenly as winners

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Hoosier Lottery will honor winners of a flawed fast-play game that was shut down Sunday hours after it began issuing tickets.

The decision to honor the winning tickets came in a Friday afternoon news release. A total of 632 tickets were sold in the $20 Golden Jackpot Fast Play instant-win game, the lottery had said in a Monday news release.

Ticket buyers say they’d matched three numbers for a $5,000 payout, but, when checking to confirm they’d won, were told they were not winners. Sales of the tickets stopped at noon Sunday, after 632 tickets were sold, and purchasers were “perceiving a winning ticket that could not be validated as a winning ticket through the mobile app or at retail,” the Monday news release said.

The Hoosier Lottery’s Friday news release did not say how much could be paid out, but if all 632 tickets were to pay out $5,000, that would total $3.16 million. The Hoosier Lottery says it’s working with its vendor to prevent the mistake from happening again.

Here are the steps ticket buyers who still have their tickets must take to claim their prizes:

• Fill out a claim form at HoosierLottery.com.
• Provide a copy of a valid government-issued photo ID.
• Present the ticket at a lottery prize payment center or mail the ticket to: Hoosier Lottery Prize Payment, 1302 N. Meridian Street, Suite 100, Indianapolis, IN 46202.

The Friday release said, “There will be a process to review tickets and players will not leave with a check. If the ticket and claim form are valid, player will be mailed a check in the coming days.”

Here are the steps for buyers who no longer have their tickets:

• Fill out an affidavit form at HoosierLottery.com.
• Provide a copy of a valid government-issued photo ID.
• Mail affidavit to: Hoosier Lottery Prize Payment, 1302 N. Meridian Street, Suite 100, Indianapolis, IN  46202.

The affidavits will be processed Sept. 16. If a player’s claim is determined to be valid, a check will be mailed shortly after affidavit processing.

“Throughout this investigation, it has been our main goal to identify the specific issue and provide a reasonable remedy for our loyal players. We believe strongly in providing fun and entertaining games for our players. In this circumstance, the execution of the game did not rise to the high expectations we set for the Hoosier Lottery.”

Sarah M. Taylor, executive director of Hoosier Lottery