‘Wild card’ winner loses in high court

PORTLAND – A lottery player whose interpretation of the term “wild card” gave rise to his claim that he had a $20,000 winning ticket got little sympathy in Maine’s highest court.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday denied Larry Moody’s appeal, saying his interpretation would make every Wild Card Cash ticket a winner.

Moody claimed the prize in the instant lottery game, even though none of the six scratch boxes showed a hand with a winning pair.

When he scratched a separate box labeled “wild card,” the five that emerged did not match any of the numbers or letters in any of the hands.

That didn’t stop Moody from submitting the ticket to the Maine State Lottery and seeking payment. He contended that the common definition of a wild card permitted him to disregard the number five and determine for himself the card’s value.

He chose the wild card to be a four or a six, which were the numbers in the hand positioned above the $20,000 prize.

When the state rejected the claim, Moody filed suit in Cumberland County Superior Court, claiming fraud and breach of contract. After the state submitted affidavits, an unscratched ticket and a copy of the rules of the game, the lower court granted its motion to dismiss the suit.

The supreme court unanimously rejected Moody’s arguments that the judge erred in considering the “extraneous information” submitted by the state and that the contract between the parties was subject to ambiguity.

“Moody’s interpretation is not only unreasonable, it is frivolous,” Justice Robert Clifford wrote. “It is clear from the back of the lottery ticket, where it states that the odds of winning are 1:3.59, that the state intended to include an element of chance when it created the Wild Card Cash game.”