9 Years Before He finally claim his lotto rewards

[coin-investor]

First I would like to clarify that this is a true story, it was covered by reputable media in the Philippines and there are articles provided in this thread you can also Google this story.

A lotto winner in the Philippines who won 12 million pesos in 2014 worth $217k now, can finally claim his lotto winning and this is after 9 years of legal battle

On Oct. 5, 2014, Mendoza went to the PCSO Main Office in Mandaluyong City where he submitted a handwritten account of the incident to the legal department.

But because the damaged ticket could not be validated, Mendoza was told by the PCSO on Oct. 20, 2014 that he could not claim the prize. This was based on the PCSO’s prevailing conditions on claiming/payment of winnings.

This prompted him to seek relief from the SC and after nine years of legal battle, the high court ruled that the circumstances surrounding the fact that Mendoza won the lottery were established and that the testimonies of Mendoza and his family were admissible.

Almost nine years ago – on October 2, 2014 – Mendoza placed three bets for the Lotto 6/42 through lucky pick in an outlet in Batangas. A day later, he found out he won. The problem was his granddaughter crumpled his winning ticket.

In an attempt to straighten the ticket, Mendoza’s daughter ironed the ticket with a piece of cloth covering it. However, the ticket was blackened instead. The only remaining visible details were:
The first two digits of the three bet combinations
The outlet from which the ticket was bought
Draw date
Date of purchase
Partially, the time the ticket was purchased

In these 9 years, the winner did not lose hope and summoned the help of lawmakers and lawyers to help him win the case he even worked as an overseas worker and just came home just to attend hearings and follow with his case and he even sold some of his properties so he can sustain the battle.

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

https://www.rappler.com/nation/give-lotto-winner-damaged-ticket-million-prize-supreme-court-orders-pcso/
https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/classified-odd/10/10/14/winning-lotto-ticket-burned-flat-iron
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/10/26/pcso-lotto-winner-damaged-ticket-12-million-prize.html

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[stadus]

Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter

He fought to claim his winnings, and I think it's worth the wait. Twelve million pesos is still a lot of money; he's now one of the millionaires in the Philippines, so he should be happy with that. The 6% interest per annum is another bonus, so I guess he'll now live a good life with the money he won from the lottery.

The good thing is that the court has honored his winnings. I thought when a ticket is already destroyed, it's automatically non-acceptable, but the ruling of the court favors him but the sad part is after nine long years. What kind of justice system is that?

[Lida93]

What I can say as lesson learnt from this true life story is that we shouldn't carelessly misplace our gambling tickets or lose it because the gambling house won't accept any explanation you might want to give even when they know you are not a stone throw away from the truth as the true winner of the said game.

The man fought what can be described as a good legal battle, a battle of almost a decade, only God knows the agony he must have passed through all those years in this legal battle with the bet outlet. He was so lucky to still have some details left uncleaned on his ticket after his daughter had ironed it with the intention to straighten the rumple ticket, if it was a complete blank ticket there wouldn't have been any evidence substantial to win this battle.  Congratulations to him.

[danherbias07]

It's worth the wait and it's a good lesson for everyone who is playing the national lotto in our country.
I suddenly remembered my grandfather and I know where he is keeping his lottery tickets. They are all in good condition, not even a fold, even the lottery tickets from somewhere 3-5 months ago (if I remember correctly) were all in good condition, even the numbers are still visible.
I always keep his taxi cab clean that's why I know it all and I am also the one who went to the lotto outlet to place a bet when I was young.
A mistake was made by ironing the ticket but if the other details are still intact then I bet the PCSO could still track that it's a legitimate winning ticket from their records.
Sometimes it's just a matter of fixing it in a different way but it seems like PCSO doesn't really want to give the prize money to him. He still has the ticket and it should be enough proof that he made the bet and PCSO would just need to confirm it by searching their system.
I think it's also worth it because even though it took long, at least now we know there will be people who are willing to help out to solve the case.

[robelneo]

The good thing is that the court has honored his winnings. I thought when a ticket is already destroyed, it's automatically non-acceptable, but the ruling of the court favors him but the sad part is after nine long years. What kind of justice system is that?

I have followed this story and the high court is right in presenting the decision to award the prize based on the article provided by OP

The High Court also explained that the circumstances surrounding the fact that Mendoza won the lotto were clearly established. Despite the RTC and CA’s characterization of Mendoza’s evidence as secondary, the SC said “secondary evidence may be resorted to when the original document is unavailable.”

Hence the secondary evidence pointed him to be the winner and besides no other came forward to claim the prize only him, It is a total injustice if he is deprived of the prize when there is a piece of physical evidence presented although partly damaged, this is a landmark case and the court have uphold justice that the winner deserves his prize, the winner suffers a lot and its not good to go to another hardship all through his life by having his appeal denied.

[Yogee]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

We need more details about the case but if the winner didn't give up even after selling properties then the money must have been worth it. There's probably compensations other than the jackpot + interests that are not being disclosed.

What I want to know is will they pay the equivalent amount of that 12 million pesos in today's money? The value is no longer the same if you include inflation. I key in the data to an inflation calculator and it's saying the current value is around 16.3 million pesos.

https://filgit.com/philippine-inflation-calculator

The value of ₱12,391,600 in 2014 was equivalent to ₱16,341,048.582 in 2023.

This means that what costs ₱12,391,600 in 2014 would have cost ₱16,341,048.582 in 2023.
The purchasing power of the peso has depreciated by 31.87% from 2014 to 2023.

[coin-investor]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

We need more details about the case but if the winner didn't give up even after selling properties then the money must have been worth it. There's probably compensations other than the jackpot + interests that are not being disclosed.

What I want to know is will they pay the equivalent amount of that 12 million pesos in today's money? The value is no longer the same if you include inflation. I key in the data to an inflation calculator and it's saying the current value is around 16.3 million pesos.

I have provided all the articles to complete the details I cannot just copy paste all the articles here, all you need to do is spend a minute or two to read the article
I also posted

First I would like to clarify that this is a true story, it was covered by reputable media in the Philippines and there are articles provided in this thread you can also Google this story.

At the beginning of my thread so how can you miss it?

[BitcoinPanther]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter

Since the person won the case and is now be able to claim his winnings, no matter how long the trial is, it is worth the wait.  A normal employee can't earn Php12m in 10 years.  The rift with his daughter has been established when they won the lottery, so whether they pursue the case or not, the rift  had already been established.

Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

As long as I know that I won and I did not do anything illegal, I will also fight for the right to claim the prize.  The guy is lucky because not all the printout were blacken, they still have the number, the place where they buy the ticket and I think that is one of the big factor why they can verify the validity of the claim of the person.

The value of ₱12,391,600 in 2014 was equivalent to ₱16,341,048.582 in 2023.

This means that what costs ₱12,391,600 in 2014 would have cost ₱16,341,048.582 in 2023.
The purchasing power of the peso has depreciated by 31.87% from 2014 to 2023.

@OP stated that the person will be given a 6% interest per annum, for 9 years, I think they are giving the person way more than the inflation rate depreciation.

[Yogee]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

We need more details about the case but if the winner didn't give up even after selling properties then the money must have been worth it. There's probably compensations other than the jackpot + interests that are not being disclosed.

What I want to know is will they pay the equivalent amount of that 12 million pesos in today's money? The value is no longer the same if you include inflation. I key in the data to an inflation calculator and it's saying the current value is around 16.3 million pesos.

I have provided all the articles to complete the details I cannot just copy paste all the articles here, all you need to do is spend a minute or two to read the article
I also posted

First I would like to clarify that this is a true story, it was covered by reputable media in the Philippines and there are articles provided in this thread you can also Google this story.

At the beginning of my thread so how can you miss it?

I read the article from CNN and nothing was mentioned about how much the winner spent for the legal process so how would I know if it was worth it? The article also did not mention anything about the effect of inflation that I am asking. You were not curious at all if the 12 million+ from 9 years ago is the same as today?

[shield132]

Almost nine years ago – on October 2, 2014 – Mendoza placed three bets for the Lotto 6/42 through lucky pick in an outlet in Batangas. A day later, he found out he won. The problem was his granddaughter crumpled his winning ticket.

In an attempt to straighten the ticket, Mendoza’s daughter ironed the ticket with a piece of cloth covering it. However, the ticket was blackened instead. The only remaining visible details were:
The first two digits of the three bet combinations
The outlet from which the ticket was bought
Draw date
Date of purchase
Partially, the time the ticket was purchased

In these 9 years, the winner did not lose hope and summoned the help of lawmakers and lawyers to help him win the case he even worked as an overseas worker and just came home just to attend hearings and follow with his case and he even sold some of his properties so he can sustain the battle.

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

https://www.rappler.com/nation/give-lotto-winner-damaged-ticket-million-prize-supreme-court-orders-pcso/
https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/classified-odd/10/10/14/winning-lotto-ticket-burned-flat-iron
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/10/26/pcso-lotto-winner-damaged-ticket-12-million-prize.html

In my country, if you buy lottery in bank, they save your personal information and if you lose ticket, you'll still be able to claim your winning but if you buy them in lottery boxes in the street, then you have to keep ticket undamaged with you. In overall, many company wants to don't give away prize if they have legal right to keep it but in this case, I can't blame company for what they did because ticket was really damaged and this is something that ticket owner has to take care. Btw I am happy that ticket owner won it finally. Yes, nine 9 years have passed and inflation has eaten some of his money but still it's better than nothing. This lesson will teach ticket owner to take care of everything that he holds.

[Natsuu]

It certainly is worth the wait. I think with all the lawyers that he hd, the had already assessed how much will be left to him. And it’s a good thing that it is earning interest.
Also. it is not worthy just for his own interest. He made awareness for other people that it is possible to win those kund of cases. Now the PCSO cannot fool or scare people that it wont be possible to calim winnings when lotto tickets are altered accidentally. It's commendable that he unintentionally used his situation to raise awareness and potentially help others facing similar challenges. Not luke its a good thing that it took him 6years to win the case. Sometimes, the impact goes beyond the individual case, creating positive changes or awareness in the system. Happy for him.

[AbuBhakar]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

I knew this story and it’s quite popular because of the uniqueness of the scenario. Both side have basis on their stand but I really like the decision of SC to release the prize since no one it that year while there’s already an announcement that 1 person win that time.

Lottery prize has only 1 year to claim while no one claim that time aside from that person who has damage ticket. PCSO can make this issue short if they will just use logic on rewarding the prize yet the higher ups in there probably taking their time so that they can claim the prize once the winner get tired on claiming.

If I’m with the same situation. Of course I will do the same since I knew myself that I’m the winner and I know that no one will claim aside me.

[AmoreJaz]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter

Since the person won the case and is now be able to claim his winnings, no matter how long the trial is, it is worth the wait.  A normal employee can't earn Php12m in 10 years.  The rift with his daughter has been established when they won the lottery, so whether they pursue the case or not, the rift  had already been established.

Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

As long as I know that I won and I did not do anything illegal, I will also fight for the right to claim the prize.  The guy is lucky because not all the printout were blacken, they still have the number, the place where they buy the ticket and I think that is one of the big factor why they can verify the validity of the claim of the person.

The value of ₱12,391,600 in 2014 was equivalent to ₱16,341,048.582 in 2023.

This means that what costs ₱12,391,600 in 2014 would have cost ₱16,341,048.582 in 2023.
The purchasing power of the peso has depreciated by 31.87% from 2014 to 2023.

@OP stated that the person will be given a 6% interest per annum, for 9 years, I think they are giving the person way more than the inflation rate depreciation.

i can say, that person has very strong determination to get what he is entitled to. if i don't have the money to pay for legal fees, i believe i won't follow the same path as his. you should be ready about the mental stress and all the others things that you will suffer from this battle. good that the person is still alive to see his winnings. i hope the lottery system will have better protocols about this, so even if something is smudge or unfortunate circumstances happened to the paper, the winner can still claim his rewards. i hope people and the lottery company will learn a thing or two from this terrible situation.

[uneng]

This is a very sensitive situation, because even though the final decision was favourable to him, it could have been the opposite, meaning he would have to pay all the costs of the case from his own pocket (lawyers, justice system), without receiving anything in the end. Just like in gambling, he took a big risk filling this lawsuit, and thankfully it worthed for him, after all. Congratulations to this gambler and let's hope he will finally enjoy his prize in the best way he can, after long 9 years waiting for it.

[Accardo]

@Yogee do you think the money if paid 9 years back would have been left today? The man must have finished the money. The equivalent of the money then and now is far very different, but the most important aspect of it, is that he got his money back. It's not like the money isn't fiat. However, the whole story is heartwarming, they is more to learn from it; don't give the gambling house a chance to eat your money. Isn't they an electronic way for the lotto company to trace his winning and pay him, without causing all the stress of having to take a legal proceed.  I don't know if the annual interest added to him would be enough to cover for the funds he spent, following the case for 9 years. Yet, I'm impressed to see he won his money back. Everything do happen for a special reason. Today he'll control the money and use it for other things. And replenish all he's lost in the process. Personally, If I have the resources like the man, I'd follow up the money till the better end. No need to let it slide. And remain in the pains of the past forever. The whole story sounds like they naturally helped him save his money for 9 years. As that duration is quite a very long time, that not everyone would stay without moving on to the next level. The battle between gamblers and casinos never ends. A misunderstanding follows the big wins. Causing the gambler lots of damages; emotionally and mentally. The man is indeed strong enough to withstand the disappointment. Some would call it a misfortune and blame it on their daughters. Which would leave the family in chaos for a long time.

[aioc]

I watched it on TV and was glad that he did get it, it's a long wait and it's worth it the 6% is to compensate for the money that was stuck on the lottery company, it's a landmark case for me, all cases that are similar to what the winner experience will have a case to rely on this kind of decision.

In the Philippines, there is no recording of information when buying a ticket but the lottery company can trace the location and the time the winner bet on the lotto outlet, back then CCTV was not as popular as it is today, so it could be a big evidence if they have a camera back then.

[Gozie51]

My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

He had a valid case that was why he pursued it and later won it, so it is worth it. It is an easy case since nobody else calm with the winning ticket apart from him. If someone calm alongside to also claim for the winning then it would become complecated but now that he was the only one with valid evidences so he has to win the case.

He would have gone further to claim for damages apart from being rewarded his winning. He should claim for the expenses he must have expended in getting lawyers and his time for the case. On this even if the lottery company claim that he caused the reason for the case by altering the ticket then his counter claim should be that no other person calm up with the ticket claiming to be winner of the lottery game and so they should have known that he was the winner rather than dragging him out and wasting his money and time.

[m2017]

The moral of the story is that if you don’t want to throw money away, keep your winning lottery ticket intact until you receive your winnings, if the ticket turns out to be such.

As can be seen from this story, it was worth the wait, as well as the fight (to prove that you were right), because the hero of this story nevertheless achieved what he wanted, for which he can only be congratulated. He would have received his winnings immediately if he had ensured the safety of the lottery ticket. This was his mistake, for which he paid with many years of waiting. If he had lost the litigation, then all the money and time spent would have gone down the drain. Actually, this is a good ending to this story.

And now for a moment of fantasy. If this Filipino received his prize money on time and invested this money in the bitcoin, then by now he would already have a very good capital.

[topbitcoin]

No kidding...!!! 9 years is a long time and how could he have the persistence and passion to take what has been his, for a long time. I can only imagine that in those nine years he went through a long trial process. Which can only make our spirit fade and eventually die.


And if it happened to me maybe I would be more willing to let it go. And especially if in my country this is not a case that I can bring to trial and appeal before the Constitutional Court. Gambling and togel are prohibited activities in my country. And if I bring this case to the authorities, then it is the same as I surrender myself to law enforcement officials, and later I will only get sanctions and punishment because I have been proven guilty, namely carrying out prohibited activities.

[o48o]

-cut-
In an attempt to straighten the ticket, Mendoza’s daughter ironed the ticket with a piece of cloth covering it. However, the ticket was blackened instead. The only remaining visible details were:
The first two digits of the three bet combinations
The outlet from which the ticket was bought
Draw date
Date of purchase
Partially, the time the ticket was purchased

I've done this accidentally on one of my tickets as well. Luckily we have all electronic system now so i wouldn't even need the ticket.

-cut-
My questions are :
Do you think it's worth the wait, he's getting 6% interest per annum but he still has to pay a lot of money and suffers a lot even to the point of having a rift with his daughter
Will you do the same thing and fight for your rights to claim the prize

https://www.rappler.com/nation/give-lotto-winner-damaged-ticket-million-prize-supreme-court-orders-pcso/
https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/classified-odd/10/10/14/winning-lotto-ticket-burned-flat-iron
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/10/26/pcso-lotto-winner-damaged-ticket-12-million-prize.html

It's never good to have a rift with your kids, but i have really hard for me to believe that rift hapened only because of this.
And i am confused. Wouldn't the loser of the case need to cover all the expenses for the trials?

Mendoza was clearly wronged and eligible for the prize money. Imagine him not fighting for it. That could leave some self-esteem issues for life.