Winners lose in lotto foul-up
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hundreds of people who bought a copy of the New York Daily News thought they had struck it rich, winning the top $100,000 prize in a newspaper-sponsored lotto game called Scratch & Match. But wait.
Sorry, wrong number -- the newspaper told people to scratch the number "13" off their game cards. It meant to print the number "12."
CNN courier Angel Rosado was among those who went to bed Sunday thinking he was $100,000 richer. He woke up to learn otherwise.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I was completely discouraged, very upset and didn't know how I was going to tell my family. We almost threw a party (Sunday)."
More than 800 Scratch & Match players went with their "winning" tickets to the doorsteps of the Daily News demanding some sort of compensation for the slip.
They were given a letter telling them to mail their cards in for a random drawing, the procedure laid out in the game rules for dealing with a printing error.
But in a news conference Monday morning, New York Daily News president Les Goodstein said, "We do not believe that the solution in the event of the mistake outlined on the back of the card goes far enough in this case. It's not adequate and it's not sufficient."
Daily News officials said D.L. Blair, the agency that runs the contest, was responsible for the error and is working with the paper on another solution.
In the Scratch & Match game, people are instructed to scratch off the numbers on their card corresponding to the 10 numbers printed in the newspaper.
If any three of the boxes they uncover reveal identical cash amounts, they win that amount.
The cards come in the Sunday paper; numbers are printed daily.
The game started March 6 and is to run through June 18.
