Lottery winner sued after buying victorious £9.5million ticket from his own store

In order to win the game, called "The Pick", players must match six numbers on their ticket costing $1 each.

A staff member who was serving the customer is alleged to have printed $85 worth of tickets but the customer only paid for $60 worth, leaving 25 slips behind on the store's counter.

When the Arizona Lottery announced the winning combination later that night, one of those abandoned tickets matched every number.

Gawlitza allegedly became aware that his store had printed the jackpot-winning ticket, but failed to sell it and searched through the remaining tickets to locate the winner.

According to a law suit filed by Circle K last week, he then removed his uniform before purchasing the remaining tickets from another employee for $10 and signed the winning slip.

However, Circle K learned of the transaction and instructed that the ticket be retained at the company's corporate headquarters.

As part of its legal argument, the company cited Arizona's Administrative Code which states that lottery tickets generated by a retailer but refused by customers and subsequently unsold remain the property of the retailer itself.

The company has now asked the court who is responsible for ownership of the ticket and therefore the prize money.

A spokesman for the lottery said: "This is a unique situation and we are not aware of any prior litigation of this sort involving the Arizona Lottery."

The prize is one of the biggest in the history of The Pick game.

The largest jackpot scooped by a player was $14million in 2019.

A winning Arizona Lottery ticket should be claimed within 180 days.

In this case, the money must therefore be claimed by May 23.

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