It sounds like a wild lotto story straight out of a movie
After a nine-year legal battle, lotto winner Antonio Mendoza has finally been given the green light to claim his whopping Php12.391 million prize he had won in October 2014.
The Supreme Court recently dropped the bombshell, ordering the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to pay Mendoza his winnings. And there’s a cherry on top: cough up a legal interest of 6 percent per annum from the moment the gavel hit.
Here’s how it all went down: On that fateful day nine years ago, Mendoza decided to try his luck and placed some bets for the Lotto 6/42 draw. Like many lotto players, he chose the “lucky pick” combinations, crossing his fingers to win.
Little did he know that one of those slips of paper held the key to a life-changing fortune. But his winning ticket went through a bit of a rough patch when his granddaughter unintentionally crumpled it.
His daughter tried to salvage it by ironing the thermal ticket with a cloth. But instead of straightening the ticket, it gave it a half-burn makeover, blackening a big chunk of those precious winning numbers.
The PCSO refused to pay him up, citing the ticket’s less-than-pristine condition. But Mendoza wasn’t ready to fold his hands just yet, so he took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
In its ruling, the high court declared that the PCSO’s own rules show that Lotto 6/42 doesn’t require a “pre-determined winning ticket.” In other words, the condition of the ticket isn’t the sole factor for prize payment.
Talk about a lotto win for the history books!
