If someone threw away a winning lottery ticket, should she later be able to claim it?

http://news.yahoo.com/woman-lost-ark-lotto-ticket-entitled-1m-001711454.html

I saw something about this on the news this morning. I think the above quote is the key point. She was told it wasn't a winner, so threw it away like any normal person would.

Does she have recourse against the finder? That's a totally different issue in my mind, and probably not "fair". I'd say she might be able to go after the convenience store or wherever the glitch originated that resulted in her being told it wasn't a winner though.

I agree.....anybody would throw the ticket away if it scanned as 'not a winner'....to me, it's the convenience store or whoever created a scanner that called a winning ticket no good that ought to be sue-able.

As I understand it, the machine incorrectly read the ticket because the woman didn't completely scratch off the coating over whatever it is the machine reads.

...talk about depressing ....

^^^^^^ just looking for a rich woman to hate him and buy him a house

Oh.....if that's true, then tough luck for her i say.

At this point, why not just split the cash?

The original buyer wouldn't have anything if the second didn't find it, and the second wouldn't have anything if the first didn't buy it.

But, if I were the one to buy it, I'd definitely sue the entity responsible for the false "Not a Winner" message.

what was the exact message returned from the lottery device?

maybe it was referring to the person and not the ticket itself

In my prior life, I worked in a gas station that sold lottery tickets, the ticket would not even read if everything was not scratched off the bar code.

Is there a warning label on the ticket that the convenience store and the state are not responsible if ticket holders don't know enough to scratch it all off to see if they are a winner?