Mara Hoffmann claims she won R$201.9 million in the Mega-Sena lottery. However, the lottery did not register the bet. According to Mara, the employee who served her at the lottery did not register the supposedly winning Mega-Sena bet on September 28, 2022.
The incident took place in São Bento, a city in Paraíba that is 294.1 km from the capital João Pessoa. According to information from the Metrópoles portal, the businesswoman, owner of an optician’s shop, took legal action because she claims to have placed the bet at a lottery shop, however, due to an error by the attendant, the game was not registered correctly.
Mara had allegedly played Mega-Sena, Quina and Lotofácil. Despite this, instead of placing the Mega-Sena bet, the attendant had passed the Quina bet twice and stapled the respective receipt. Mara, however, only noticed the error shortly before the draw, when she was already at home.
Mega-Sena draw took place in September 2022
In contest 2524, on September 28, 2022, the following numbers were played: 03, 20, 22, 23, 37, 41 and 43. No registered bet matched all the numbers – Mara, therefore, would be the only Mega-Sena winner. In addition, she also played Quina (04, 23, 38, 53 and 58) and Lotofácil (04, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 and 25).
Given the alleged error, one day after the Mega-Sena draw, the optician returned to the lottery shop. There, she spoke to the manager and watched the security camera footage, which, according to the businesswoman, confirmed the employee’s error in not registering the supposedly winning ticket. However, she was not given a copy of the footage.
Mara then filed a lawsuit with the Court of Justice of Paraíba (TJPB) on September 30, 2022, seeking access to the images and betting data. In the defense’s view, which is included in the lawsuit, this would be an early production of evidence to prove the facts. The businesswoman also filed a police report.
Court accepts request, lottery contests
The court in Paraíba accepted the request in the first instance last February. Despite this, the lottery contests the facts and, therefore, appealed the decision. According to the defense, the images from the security cameras are no longer available because they are deleted every 6 months. Therefore, it would be an impossible production of evidence.
Images of Mara’s Mega-Sena, Quina and Lotofácil tickets are included in the lawsuit. While the optometrist uses these images to prove her own version of the facts, the lottery shop counters:
“When observing the way the bets were written and marked on the betting slip, we see that the MEGA-SENA one is different from the others, making it clear that it was made later. Another interesting fact is when we see the place where the bet was stapled, in the bets made we see that they were stapled on the upper left side, and precisely in the MEGA-SENA one, the original slip was removed, a later one was placed and stapled in the center of the ticket”, claims the defense of the lottery shop.
The amount paid for the ticket is also questioned. “Finally, in order to conclude what is stated here, it is materialized in the value of the bet, because according to the attached MEGA-SENA mirror, we see that 07 numbers were marked, therefore, this bet alone would be R$ 31.50. Different from the R$ 11.00 charged, referring to all bets made”, he adds.
About the Mega-Sena draw
At the time, the prize of R$201.9 million was considered one of the biggest in Mega-Sena, close to that of Mega da Virada on December 31, 2020. As no one matched the six numbers, the amount accumulated for the 14th consecutive time.
According to Caixa, there were 404 winning bets for quina (five correct numbers), worth R$43,914.62, on the date. Another 30,194 bets made quadra (four correct numbers) and received R$839.40.
