7 Seconds To Heaven

[darklord700]

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/...nds/ar-AA8JCcj

Just a little interesting story about how one's life could have had changed in 7 seconds.

[mrkajz44]

The two relevant paragraphs of the article:

The protracted battle began on the night of May 23, 2008, when Ifergan walked into his local dépanneur just before 9 p.m. and asked to purchase tickets for that evening’s Lotto Super 7 draw. The Loto-Québec machine spat out the first of his two quick-pick tickets at 8:59.57, and it was dated for the May 23 draw. The second was issued at 9:00.07, and that was that ticket that held the winning combination of numbers. There was only one problem: it was for the following week’s draw.

Ifergan, an accountant by trade, has always maintained that he should have won the May 23 draw because his request for the tickets was entered into the system at 8:59.47. Each ticket then took ten seconds to process, meaning the second ticket was printed seven seconds after deadline. Every court, including the country’s top one, has rejected that argument.

Basically showed up right at the deadline to buy lotto tickets and one was proceesed 7 seconds after the 9:00pm dealine.

I can't say I'm surprised by the decision. The time stamp on the ticket was late. Pretty much end of story here. I'm sure the rules are clear that the timing is based on the time stamp on the ticket, not when it is "requested" by the system.

[llwhiteoutll]

The even more compelling argument against him is that he was told at the time of sale that it was for the following week's draw (May 30) and he still took the ticket.

Had the numbers on that ticket popped up on the May 30 draw, I doubt he would try to give the money back, claiming that the ticket was meant to be for May 23 and he wasn't entitled to the money.

[darklord700]

I don't see how Ifergan could have had won. If it were two sets of numbers he had been playing for a length of time and the second ticket was ordered before but printed after 9pm, maybe and just maybe, he had a point. But this was a computer generated set of numbers.

[blankall]

If he'd bought the ticket earlier, he would have received different numbers on the ticket. Sorry. Not a winner.

[Dion]

I hope he didn't spend too much money fighting this court. He didn't even have a case to begin with.

[Dan02]

only about 100k.

Would be a lot more interesting if he had bought a set of numbers rather then a quick pick though, as others mentioned had he got it in before the deadline he would have had different numbers, not so much if he had played the same numbers every week.