The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has recognized the right of a woman living in Tenerife to collect 100,000 euros from a scratch-off game even though an error occurred because although it seemed that she had won, it was not recorded as such in the system that checks the tickets.
The appellant was asking for 200,000 euros because she claimed that she had been awarded two prizes and for this she provided as many screenshots, in which a key that appeared to be lit up, a symbol of winning, was seen, which in one case did give the impression that she had been lucky but in the other appeared with the phrase "we are sorry...".
The problem arose when she wanted to collect and after checking the system it was detected that there must have been a failure because as reflected she had not been lucky in either of the two cases.
After the claim, the area management of the ONCE of Tenerife decided to pay her 100,000 euros as a "specific amount" as compensation since "only the impression of having won occurred".
Now the TSJM endorses this decision, obliges the appellant to pay 1,000 euros in court costs and refuses her to collect 200,000 euros.
The woman presented the physical tickets, photographs and screenshots certified by a notary as evidence, claiming both prizes, assuring that the symbol of a key had lit up in both of them.
The ONCE admitted that "there could have been an involuntary error in the design of the digital game that may have generated confusion and the expectation of winning the aforementioned amount".
The ONCE argued that the scratch-off link ticket must be checked at a Point of Sale Terminal (POS) that reads the code and confirms if it has been awarded so that in this case one gives the impression of having been the lucky one, but in reality it was not and neither was the second.
In the Central Control System it is not recorded that any of the tickets was really awarded" given that the fact that a key appears "does not suppose any remarkable data. The method of verification is the detailed one and if there is no verification in the central system, the obtaining of a prize cannot be assumed", which in reality did not happen in either of the two cases.
In addition, it was argued from the ONCE that it is "mathematically and radically improbable" that a person had two tickets with the maximum gratification, in such a short space of time, specifically between 8:39 a.m. to 9:31 a.m. on November 28, 2022.
