Two winning tickets split the jackpot
A man who won $197.5m in the lottery over two years ago has failed in his legal challenge to double his money. Faramarz Lahijani says he bought two tickets with identical winning numbers, but because he misplaced one of them, the California Lottery would only award him half of the jackpot from the December 8, 2023 drawing.
He had one year to claim his winnings, so in December 2024, shortly before the deadline, Lahijani sued the California Lottery for the other $197.5m “out of an abundance of caution to preserve all rights which he has to the entire Dec. 8, 2023 Mega Millions jackpot.”
no claim to the additional portion of the jackpot
Lottery officials and the lottery’s legal team wouldn’t budge, saying that because Lahijani has been unable to produce the second ticket, he has no claim to the additional portion of the jackpot.
On Monday, Judge Rolf M. Treu sided with the California Lottery and dismissed the lawsuit. While Lahijani had a terrific amount of luck in picking the winning numbers, his luck in court has run out.
Curious purchase if true
Though state lotteries know how many winning tickets were purchased shortly after the numbers are drawn, they do not know who specifically won until the tickets are redeemed. In this situation, the California lottery did confirm that there were two winning tickets for the $395m Mega Millions jackpot in question and both were purchased in separate transactions at the same Chevron gas station. The holders of the winning tickets would thus split the prize evenly, $197.5m each.
Having more than one jackpot winner is certainly something that has happened many times in lottery history, but to have both winning tickets produced at the same location is bizarre. That would at least slightly support the possibility that Lahijani purchased both tickets, but still, without the physical evidence, there is no way to know.
Naturally, one of the big questions is why would anybody buy two tickets with the same numbers? It’s weird and makes little sense. Only Lahijani can answer that, and it doesn’t seem like he has. If he really did buy two identical tickets, that practice, intentional or not, cost him nearly $200m.
The unclaimed $197.5m will go to California’s public school system.
