Horan

In this case, we are asked to decide whether plaintiff, who contracted with the California Lottery Commission (the Commission) to sell lottery tickets, is entitled to the proceeds from an instant game lottery ticket which was stolen from her inventory by a teenage employee who scratched off the ticket, discovered it was a $100,000 winner, then returned it to the retailer. We conclude, as did the trial court, that plaintiff is not entitled to the prize money since she did not play the winning ticket consistent with the principle of fair chance as required by the Commission’s rules and the game of lottery itself.

Facts and Procedural History

As the trial court observed, “Levin’s Law of Mathematics suggests with some whimsy that ‘when the odds are a million to one against something happening, the chances are 50/50 that it will.’ In this case, it did.”

During the first year of operation of the state lottery, plaintiff contracted with the Commission to sell scratch-off lottery tickets at the delicatessen she operates in Fair Oaks. In July 1986, a 17-year-old employee stole a number of “Instant Game 7—The Good Life” tickets from plaintiff’s inventory. The minor scratched the…