Bet entered wrong by bookie nets man $2.6 million

[Rooster_Ties]

SOURCE

Cup mistake nets punter $2.6m

November 13, 2003

A MYSTERY punter walked away with a cool $2.6 million dollars after a TAB operator incorrectly entered his trifecta bet on the Melbourne Cup.

The punter phoned a series of trifecta bets in on the Melbourne Cup and one particular bet, a $6 box trifecta 20 times on the winning combination of Makybe Diva, She's Archie and Jardine's Lookout, was mistakenly entered 203 times.

Instead of costing the punter $120 the bet was worth $1218 and as the customer elected to not have his bets read back to him was forced to honour the bet win or lose.

"This punter is one of our larger phone punters and he was having a series of bets on the Melbourne Cup," TAB Limited's public affairs manager Peter Fletcher said.

Fletcher said the punter could not be identified publicly but is well known to TAB Limited.

The windfall came to light yesterday when Warren Wilson, TAB Limited's chief executive, appeared on radio 2KY responding to rumours about the mistake.

"Warren went on 2KY to confirm the story was accurate," Fletcher said.

"(The punter) is a customer who bets in large amounts and doesn't elect to have the operator call back the bet.

"He wanted a box trifecta 20 times on the Melbourne Cup but the operator keyed in 203 times on the combination."

The trifecta payed $12,895.00 and instead of receiving about $250,000 the punter contacted TAB Limited when he found $2.6 million in his account.

"He thought there was a mistake with the account," Fletcher said. "But he is the beneficiary of the winning bet even though it wasn't the bet he wanted."

The Daily Telegraph

[Jazzmoose]

Man, I hate it when that happens...darn operator!

[Jim Alfredson]

Wow. Buddy can you spare a dime?

[maren]

Gee, this seems to be a trend...

ROSWELL MAN HAS 2 OF 3 WINNING LOTTERY TICKETS

By Tasgola Karla Bruner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/12/03

Stephen Cooke walked into the Georgia Lottery office in Atlanta on Wednesday morning thinking he'd won $13 million.

He walked out with a check for $26.6 million.

The 60-year-old school bus driver from Roswell had two of the three winning tickets for the $70 million jackpot and didn't know it.

He said he didn't bother looking at his other tickets when he realized he'd won the jackpot with one.

"The Georgia Lottery people kept querying me about what place I bought my ticket and what time," Cooke said. "I thought that was strange. I already had a winner."

What lottery officials didn't tell Cooke right away was that they knew two winning tickets for the jackpot had been purchased at the same time and same place -- the SaveRite at 10800 Alpharetta Highway in Roswell.

They suggested he return home and check his other tickets.

So Cooke was escorted home by a Georgia Lottery security guard to get his other tickets. In fact, he also had two $150 winning tickets using a combination of relatives' birthdays.

But the news that he was a multiple winner "didn't matter," Cooke said.

"It's already astronomical," he said. "I hope I'll never spend $13 million. That's more money than I need."