A $36 million Mega Millions jackpot has gone unclaimed after the winner never showed up. The winning ticket was sold months ago but no one turned up to collect it.

According to Florida Lottery officials, the winning ticket was sold at a grocery store in Jacksonville. The customer, according to the lottery, had matched all six winning numbers for the August 15 drawing, including the Mega Ball.

For reference, the winning combination was 18, 39, 42, 57 and 63, plus a Mega Ball of 7. The game consists of 70 white numbered balls and 25 Mega Balls, making it very difficult to match all six numbers. Despite doing just that, the lucky client never showed up to claim the jackpot.

Under the rules of the Florida Lottery, all winnings should be redeemed within 180 days. In this case, the period within which the prize had to be redeemed ended on February 11.

Unclaimed Money Are Donated or Returned to the Lottery

Under normal circumstances, 80% of the unredeemed lottery money in Florida goes to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. The rest is returned to the lottery prize pool. However, since Mega Millions is an interstate game, the money will be split between the states where the Mega Millions game is available.

The money that will be sent back is $17.5 million since this is the actual cash value of the unclaimed jackpot. For reference, the customer could have claimed the $36 million instead if agreeing for the jackpot to be paid out in installments over a 30-year period.

In order to avoid unclaimed winnings, many lotteries across the US have introduced online safeguards, linking winnings to players’ accounts. However, retail tickets still carry certain risks, sometimes resulting in unclaimed prizes.

Speaking of jackpot games, Powerball and the DC Lottery are now facing a lawsuit over an alleged winning numbers error. This stems from a case where a Washington DC man was sure that he had won the Powerball prize but was later told that he didn’t hit the jackpot because of a mistake in the announced winning numbers.

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NagaCorp Ltd, a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability and operator of NagaWorld integrated casino resort in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, published its full-year 2022 financial results, posting a net profit.

Positive Financial Results

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, NagaCorp generated revenue of $460.7 million, more than doubling its 2021 reading of $225.9 million. Compared to 2019 ($1.755 billion), 2022 revenue is down by 73.8%, casting aside any notion of pre-pandemic recovery.

Turning to the company’s shareholders, Timothy Patrick McNally, chairman of NagaCorp, highlighted the positive operational and financial results of the business that was impacted by the pandemic in the previous two years.

“The gradual recovery of our business and resiliency of our earnings in the face of major market disruptions placed NagaCorp as only one of the two regional gaming companies to achieve profitability during the period,” McNally stated.

Gross profit for the largest hotel, gaming and leisure operator in Cambodia was $376 million, up 162% on the previous year but down 55.6% compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.  50% of it, or $189.8 million, came from mass market table gaming, mass market electronic gaming machines contributed an additional 28%, or $103.9 million.

EBITDA for the twelve months at the gaming and hospitality operator listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong came at $245.4 million. In 2021, EBITDA was just $15.6 million. The huge increase in EBITDA allowed NagaCorp to register a net profit of $107.3 million for the year as compared to a loss of $147 million in 2021.

ASEAN Reopening, Cost Control

The stable financial results were attributed to the gradual reopening in ASEAN and continued stringent cost control measures which resulted in a higher profit margin. The recovery of Cambodia tourism and visitations to NagaWorld also contributed to the bottom line of the operator.

NagaCorp reported that the average daily business volumes for its mass market and premium market segments in the year have recovered by 76.8% and 66.7%, respectively, compared to the pre-pandemic peaks in 2019. Both mass market and premium market gaming contributed about 94% of NagaCorp’s total gaming revenue.

The company’s non-mass referral VIP business declined during the year but as the number of direct flights to Phnom Penh continued to increase, the average daily numbers posted stable growth.

Non-gaming revenue of the company increased significantly year-over-year positively impacted by the reopening of business operations and the easing of travel policies in Cambodia and other countries in the region that increased footfall and occupancy rates.

“We believe that the long-term prospects and outlook of the Company are favourable, with the return of tourism and continued investment in the local Cambodian economy,” concluded McNally on the company’s future outlook, expressing the Board’s appreciation to employees, shareholders, customers and suppliers.

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On Monday Pace-O-Matic in Pennsylvania announced it had won a court motion forcing Monroe County to return its gaming machines and other seized assets including cash since the cabinets that look like slots were seized illegally in raids conducted by the county district attorney’s office in 2021.

The ruling was issued by Monroe County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Harlacher Sibum on February 8, 2023.

The ruling states that the machines are games of skill rather than games of chance. Additionally, the court admonished the DA’s office as the judge found “the Commonwealth improperly withheld and misrepresented material evidence in order to get the search warrant” used to seize the machines.

Skill Games Seized with Fudged Warrant

In addition to the games being skill games, the de facto illegal search and seizure was cited by the court as another reason the seized property could not be used as evidence.

“This ruling reaffirms our status as legal games of skill,” said Pace-O-Matic spokesman Mike Barley. “This is another tremendous victory for Pennsylvania Skill games, powered by Pace-O-Matic, and our Pennsylvania small business and fraternal partners.”

In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the machines are branded as “Pennsylvania Skill”. Pace-O-Matic skill gaming machines are operated in six states, including Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming. The firm’s headquarters is in Duluth, Georgia.

In Kentucky, where thousands of the cabinets are said to be deployed, they are branded as Burning Barrel and can be found in bars, restaurants, truck stops, convenience stores, and veterans halls.

One element that makes them games of skill is that, unlike slots, the “payline” must be recognized and claimed by the player. The games come in a variety of presentations such as a tic-tac-toe grid with various shapes and characters appearing on the screen. When three matching icons are aligned in a row, the player must tap that line to “catch” the win.

Homegrown Machines

In a press release announcing the ruling, Pace-O-Matic informed readers that the games are manufactured in PA and over 90% of the profits stay in-state. The PA-branded products are made by Miele Manufacturing in Williamsport. POM contends that Miele Manufacturing has created about 200 direct jobs. Much of the material used to create the games comes from Pennsylvania companies.

The statement added inter alia:

“Pennsylvania Skill has pumped new life into the commonwealth’s small businesses, fraternal and social clubs, and veterans organizations by providing them with an entertainment product that the public enjoys. Meanwhile, research data proves skill games do not impact the revenue of casinos and the lottery, both of which are achieving record profits year after year.

This isn’t the first time the company has dealt with law enforcement officers confiscating its machines along with the money in them. Last year, wrongfully seized skill games were returned after a settlement was negotiated by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General and the Clearfield County District Attorney’s office to return gaming cabinets, cash, and associated equipment.

A County Court of Common Pleas ruled in 2014 that Pace-O-Matic’s Pennsylvania Skill games are legal as “winning” predominantly occurs as a result of skill, not just blind luck. After the Clearfield County settlement, another PA county also returned wrongfully seized property.

The company stated that it employs a team of former state police officers to ensure compliance with all laws and contract terms with outlets. The contracts dictate where the machines are to be placed on the premises as well as the number of machines that can be deployed. Protections are also in place to prevent underage play on the machines.

Source: Pennsylvania Skill, powered by Pace-O-Matic, ruled legal game of skill once again by a Pennsylvania Court, Global NewsWire, February 13, 2023

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