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CNN Live At Daybreak

New Jersey Dispute Over Winning Big Game Ticket Settled

Aired April 30, 2002 - 06:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And we want to get more on that disputed lottery ticket in New Jersey worth millions and millions and millions of dollars.

We're joined by Anthony Johnson of CNN affiliate WABC in Trenton, New Jersey.

Good morning, Anthony, can you go through the history a little bit for us of this?

ANTHONY JOHNSON, WABC-TV REPORTER: Yes, let me tell you what happened. Of course the -- on April 16 they had the Big Game drawing, all those multimillions of dollars. And then we found out the next day that we had a winner here in the state of New Jersey.

Now a controversy actually erupted when a group of nursing home workers over in Newark, New Jersey thought a colleague who went out with a hundred bucks, a group chipped in some money, they went out, they bought the tickets. They thought they actually had the winning ticket and that one of their colleagues who bought the tickets actually skipped out with that ticket and was trying to cut out with the money. So they went to a lawyer to try to go ahead and get this whole thing straightened out.

What they have found out now is that they did not have the winning ticket, and later on today, at 11:00 this morning, we will find out who the winner is here in the state of New Jersey. Now that winner has already opted to take $58.9 million. That's the one-time payout, but we want to remind you that they still will have to pay federal income tax of 27 percent. But hey, I'd take it.

COSTELLO: Yes, you're not kidding. Hey, you mean these -- this group -- these group of workers just suddenly realized they didn't have the winning ticket? What do you mean, they just looked at the numbers wrong or what?

JOHNSON: Well what happened was they did a thorough investigation. The state conducted a very thorough investigation. They looked at some surveillance tapes because actually the guy who has won or the person who has won purchased the ticket at the same place where the guy who represented all of those Newark workers purchased his ticket. So the Newark workers thought that they were the winner because they had gone to the same place. But the state went in, they looked at some surveillance tapes, they discovered that the person who had won was not part of that group so now they're ready to announce who the winner is here in New Jersey.

COSTELLO: Oh so the group of workers won nothing?

JOHNSON: They have won absolutely nothing. And I guess you know they're going to have to apologize to the person they accused of trying to skip out with the winning ticket.

COSTELLO: What a nice work environment that will be.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Can you imagine that?

JOHNSON: It's like the newsroom.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

JOHNSON: It'll be just like a newsroom.

COSTELLO: I never thought of it that way, but you're right, Anthony.

Anthony Johnson of WABC reporting live in Trenton, thank you very much.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Oh that made me laugh.

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