“Tucked into a pocket in the driver door panel for the past five months was a R20 million Lotto jackpot ticket with the six correct numbers for the draw that took place on 28 March 2009,” said Thembi Tulwana, spokeswoman for the lottery operator Gidani.

“Now the man, who is in his 50s and who has chosen to remain anonymous, has come forward to claim the R20-million lotto jackpot prize,” she said on Tuesday.

And if he was not early to pick up his children from school one day, he probably would still have been in the dark.

“I went to pick up my children from school and I happened to be early. That’s when I decided to check my tickets that were in my car’s door panel,” the winner told Tulwana.

“The retailer checked more than 50 of my tickets and I was winning between R30 and R100 in small prizes until the last ticket read ‘not authorised to pay’.

“I decided to take this ticket to Gidani’s offices in Midrand and when I got there I was told that I was R20-million richer.”

The man, who spent R40 on his winning ticket and chose the numbers randomly, kept the news to himself for a while.

“When I got the message from the retailer that read ‘not authorised to pay’ I asked for a print-out of the numbers and went to sit in my car to check my numbers.

“I went through them about 10 times and was almost late in picking up my children.

“I decided not to tell anybody including my family because I wanted to make sure first by getting confirmation from Gidani,” said the winner.

His children will be top of mind when he starts spending his earnings.

“The first thing that I’m going to do is to settle all my debts after which I’ll be renovating our house and start planning towards my children’s future,” he said.

National Lottery Operator Gidani has teamed up with supermarket chain Pick n Pay to sell LOTTO and LOTTO Plus Quick Pick tickets at till points in an effort to increase convenience for players and to enlarge its retail footprint.

“After the successful launch of sales through banking channels in July, we continue our innovation programme to make National Lottery Products available through convenient sales channels,” said Gidani spokesperson Thembi Tulwana.

Players will be able to buy 8 denominations of LOTTO and LOTTO Plus Quick Pick via till points at Pick n Pay Supermarkets, Hypermarkets and selected franchise Family and Mini Market stores nationally, including Boxer Superstore which is also part of the Pick ‘n Pay group. These tickets can be redeemed at any National Lottery retail outlet.

All Lottery ticket sales are sold via real time integration into Gidani’s Gaming System with the same security features that a “traditional” National Lottery ticket would have.

“The new sales channel will give lottery players over 6 000 till points in the Pick n Pay group where they can purchase their favorite Quick Pick denomination,” said Tulwana.

For now, only LOTTO and LOTTO Plus Quick Pick will be available at Pick ‘n Pay and Boxer Superstore. PowerBall, Wina Manje scratch cards and SportStake can be bought at the usual National Lottery retail outlets.

More supermarket groups will begin selling LOTTO and LOTTO Plus Quick Pick tickets through their till points in the near future.

From Friday, South Africans will be able to play the lottery game which has proved to be popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, Greece, the United States and New Zealand.

PowerBall is a double matrix game designed to give lottery players a chance to win vast amounts of money. There is a guaranteed jackpot of R30 million for the first PowerBall Draw on October 23. A PowerBall board is the same price as that of a Lotto ticket at R3.50.

What will you do when you win the lotto?

The PowerBall double matrix coupon has two grids. The first grid has 45 numbers and the second has 20. There are eight game boards on a Powerball coupon. Players select five numbers out of the 45 in the first grid and one number of the 20 in the second grid. There are eight prize divisions.

In this game 42 percent of the prize pool goes to the jackpot category and the more the jackpot rolls over the larger the super jackpot prize becomes.

PowerBall will not be immediately available to online bank customers, ATM users and cellphone banking customers, as with other Lottery products.

On draw nights, PowerBall will have two sections. There will be two draw machines, two ball sets and two draws. One machine will have 45 balls and the other 20 balls. During the draw five balls will be randomly drawn from the machine containing 45 balls numbered one to 45. The PowerBall is the sixth ball which will be drawn from the second machine containing 20 balls numbered 1 to 20.

The game will be broadcast live at 9.30pm on Tuesdays and Fridays. The TV channel has not yet been identified.

“The expunging of the Lotto trademark opens the floodgates. This means that third parties who wish to sell or deal with lottery matters can use the name Lotto freely,” said patent lawyer Don MacRobert.

The ruling was made by the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday in favour of the On-line Lottery Services, which allows consumers to play on the Lottofun website.

The case went to the Supreme Court of Appeal after the High Court in Pretoria ruled in favour of the National Lotteries Board, which wanted to stop the use of the name Lottofun.

Lottofun then took the matter on appeal and won.

The email, which was sent to the Cape Argus more than once, claims that 50 “lucky email addresses” have been drawn to win.

It says all that recipients have to do is reply with their personal details, including their ID numbers.

The email has an official Gidani letterhead and logo, and claims that if recipients send their details the same day, the winning funds will be released immediately into their bank accounts.

The national lottery board has distanced itself from the scam, calling for an urgent investigation into the origin of the emails.

Gidani spokeswoman Thembi Tulwana said the company was aware of two “active lotto scams” doing the rounds.

It was also aware that the scams were promoted via emails to certain addresses, as well as on the internet.

“Gidani is the only company licensed to operate the national lottery in South Africa,” said Tulwana. “No other company may run lottery promotions in South Africa without the permission of the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, and the National Lotteries Board.

“The only way to play the lottery in this country is by purchasing a ticket from an accredited national lottery outlet.”

Tulwana said Gidani supported any investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice. “When the licence was awarded to Gidani, we committed ourselves to operate the lottery with transparency and integrity, and we do not want to be associated with a scam of any sort.

“This particular scam has already been brought to the attention of the police.”

The World Lotteries Association’s Security and Risk Management Committee has drawn up a list of more than 200 allegedly fraudulent organisations, operating from various countries across the world.

World football body Fifa has warned against the illicit emails.

Spokeswoman Delia Fischer said Fifa was continuously alerted to emails and SMSes fraudulently claiming to be associated with Fifa, the 2010 World Cup or the local organising committee, informing recipients that they had been selected as prize winners in a lottery draw and had won substantial sums of money.

“Many of these messages appear to be official and most of them ask recipients to provide their personal details, including bank account information, in order to claim the prize money,” said Fischer.

“Such scam emails try to persuade the email receiver to submit personal information, or to part with money as an upfront payment in order to release a prize.

“Fifa strongly advises the public to treat any emails concerning lottery draws or cash prizes with suspicion and extreme caution.

“We urge people not to provide any personal or financial details if requested to do so.”

Police have warned that as the World Cup draws closer, South Africans can expect to be inundated with “419 scams” linked to the event.

These scams, which originated in Nigeria, are named for a section of that country’s criminal code.

Suspicious SMSes or emails linked to the World Cup can be forwarded to the police’s specialised “419 scam” task team.

All 419 scams can be reported to 012 393 1203 or 082 779 8565, or email 419scam@saps.org.za

17 Oct 2009 at 1:20pm
Outlaws advance fees charged by scammers.

Microsoft, Yahoo, Google Lottery Scam

27 Sep 2009 at 9:45pm
Email claims that the recipient has won a large sum of money in a lottery draw organized by Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.

Google Promotion Award Advance Fee Scam

28 Aug 2009 at 4:01am
Email claims that the recipient has won a large sum of money in a “Promotion Award” operated by search engine giant, Google.

Overdue Payments Advance Fee Scam

29 Jul 2009 at 5:50am
Message claims that the recipient is owed payments of $5.5 million dollars and he or she should contact a specified “representation officer” to arrange transfer of the funds.