An Indiana lottery player who thought he had won a life-changing $100,000 from a newly launched scratch-off game received only $20, as officials blamed a “technical issue” for the confusion.
Mike Fields, a forklift driver in Indianapolis, purchased 4 “Space Invaders Cash Invasion” scratch-off game tickets while one of the cards revealed he had won $100,000, according to FOX59.
Fields excitedly scanned his winning ticket, but discovered that the ticket was worth $20 instead of the “huge amount of money” he and his wife had believed it was, Angela Ganote, a reporter for the outlet, wrote on Facebook.
Fields drove to the Hoosier Lottery headquarters in Downtown Indianapolis to claim his winnings, but was turned around by officials who said the newly released game had suffered a “technical issue.”
“They never told us ‘no’ they just said we wouldn’t be paid today, and no other information really except that we would be informed by mail within 30 days,” he told the outlet.
The game, launched by the Hoosier Lottery on June 2, is designed after the classic video game under the same name and challenges players to match their symbols with the winning symbols to win cash prizes.
One feature of the game allows players who have a rocket ship to instantly win the accompanying prize.
Fields’ ticket showed a rocket ship with the adjoining prize amount set at $100,000.
Lottery officials quickly pulled the game’s tickets from service and issued an advisory for the game on its website.
“The $5 SPACE INVADERS™ Cash Invasion Scratch-off launched with a technical issue. We halted the sales of the ticket to ensure the game experience upholds the integrity we strive to provide,” the warning read.
The lottery warned players who had faced issues with a purchased ticket to send in a protest form along with the scratcher.
While Fields was at the lottery’s offices, he ran into several other “Space Invaders” players with similar issues, but their biggest prizes were in the low thousands, FOX59 reported.
Glendon Jones, another lottery player who had purchased Space Invaders scratchers, believed he had won $2,500 and drove to the state lottery headquarters in Indianapolis to claim his prize.
But once he arrived in the state capital, Jones was told about the system glitch and wasn’t getting the money.
“They said to come down here to headquarters and they would pay the ticket. I get here and they say it’s a mess up, misprint and that I’m pretty much out of luck on it,” Jones told the outlet outside Hoosier Lottery HQ