MONTREAL -- A Quebec man who once lost a $13.5 million lottery jackpot by seven seconds is now trying to launch a class-action suit against Loto-Quebec over quick pick lottery tickets.
Joel Ifergan filed a motion to Quebec Superior Court last Wednesday asking for authorization to begin a class-action lawsuit against the Crown corporation. In the documents Ifergan alleges when someone purchases a ticket with randomly-generated numbers those combination of numbers are subsequently removed from the database of numbers available to buy. The documents quote testimony by a Loto-Quebec executive from Ifergan's previous court battle with the corporation. Denis Daly said all the purchased random generated combinations are only put back into the system after three or four draws when the database is "re-shuffled."
Ifergan alleges in the documents that this mean that millions of possibly winning combinations could be unavailable for those who do not select their own numbers and instead buy quick pick tickets by the end of several draws.
Joel Ifergan
Joel Ifergan blames the 7 second processing delay
for robbing him $27M in lotto winnings.
He hopes to be authorized to file a lawsuit on behalf of clients who purchased quick pick tickets sold by Lotto Max and its predecessor, Super 7, since 2005, with the possibility of expanding it to other lotteries.
Ifergan said as far as he knows, this system is not in place elsewhere in Canada, and it amounts to a disadvantage for Quebec clients who buy quick pick tickets with randomly assigned numbers, since the "missing" numbers could still be drawn as winners. ....Read more ...