New ruling requires Lottery São Bento to show security camera footage from the day businesswoman Mara Núbia de Oliveira Hoffmann claims to have won R$201.9 million in the Mega-Sena lottery. Substitute judge Inácio Jário Queiroz de Albuquerque upheld the ruling that requires Lottery São Bento to show security camera footage from the day of the incident.
According to Mara, the footage serves to prove the veracity of her bet, which was the winner of the draw. The entire discussion revolves around one single reason: there is no record of the game.
Now, this is a monocratic determination, that is, determined by a single magistrate. However, the case, which is being processed by the Court of Justice of Paraíba (TJPB), is still subject to appeal. In addition, the judge also reduced the amount of attorney fees, meeting part of the lottery company’s request.
New decision on the case
This new information is part of an extremely curious case. Since the businesswoman claims to have played the winning numbers, the Lottery did not register the game. Therefore, human error is responsible for all the discrepancies.
Now, according to the court’s ruling, there is the possibility of analyzing the security images from the lottery house to find out what actually happened.
“She (the employee) wasn’t paying much attention (when recording the games), no. She was always on her cell phone and doing her job,” Mara recalled.
One day after the Mega-Sena draw, the optometrist returned to the lottery shop, spoke to the manager and viewed the security camera footage, which, according to the businesswoman, confirmed the employee’s mistake in not registering the supposedly winning ticket. Mara is demanding the footage from the day of the bet.
In contest 2524, the bettor played the following numbers: 03, 20, 22, 23, 37, 41 and 43. No registered bet matched all the numbers – Mara, therefore, would be the only winner of Mega-Sena. The optician says she dreamed about these drawn numbers.
Mega-Sena: Police report and evidence
The woman filed a police report and filed a lawsuit to obtain the footage, which the column had access to, on September 30, 2022. The TJPB accepted the request in the first instance last February, giving a deadline of 15 days – a decision that has now been upheld in the second instance. Before that, the gambler filed a declaration of poverty to request free legal aid – which was ultimately denied.
The lottery, in turn, contests the decision. The argument is that it no longer has the images, since they are deleted every six months. It would therefore be an “impossible” production of evidence.
The bettor’s defense claims that, by going to the establishment the day after the draw and talking to the manager, in addition to having the conversation in a separate room to watch the images, the lottery shop was aware that it should keep the footage. A copy of it, however, was not given to her.
The Lottery’s positioning
The Lottery‘s defense spoke out for the first time, with arguments similar to those contained in the lawsuit. Read the full statement:
“We are facing a process that is not sustainable, several flaws were identified in the author’s speech and what is alleged is not confirmed. First, we must refer to the tickets, because in order to be confirmed and registered, they must be completely marked, and in the ticket enclosed by the client, it is not properly marked, not even registered, and is even scratched out.
Another important fact to be reported is the amount paid for the bet, as it can be seen that R$11.00 (eleven reais) was paid, and in fact the Mega Sena game with 7 numbers that the lady says she played cost R$31.50 (thirty-one reais and fifty cents) at the time.
Finally, every client must receive the ticket for their transaction, as it is the only document that confirms their bet, and the client/plaintiff does not have such a document!” wrote lawyer Josue Diniz de Araujo Junior.
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 Econômica Federal (CEF), there were 404 winning bets for quina (five correct numbers), worth R$43,914.62. Another 30,194 bets had quadra (four correct numbers) and received R$839.40.
