Sittard man sues Postcode Lottery over missed winnings

Kamal Maihouane is suing the Postcode Lottery for winnings he missed out on when the lottery fell on his street in January. While his neighbors were celebrating their luck, Kamal realized that he missed out on the winnings because he did not have enough money in his account for the lottery tickets to be deducted.

Kamal was signed up for four lottery tickets. But at the time of the debit order, he did not have enough money in his account and therefore did not play along. How much money he lost out on the lottery will not tell him, Kamal said to RTL Nieuws. But he estimates it is around 2.5 million euros.

According to Kamal, after January he lost friends, his job and had to move because he could not stand always hearing what a bad loser he was. "I could not keep it up, became negative about everything", he said to the broadcaster. He is now turning to court. "People say, accept the loss. But would they be able to do so if this happened to them? I want to know whether I am entitled to the money. Otherwise I will wonder for the rest of my life if I could have won." He also wants to get rid of the image of being a bad loser, he said.

He has high hopes for at least getting some money from the Postcode Lottery. "The Postcode Lottery could not take the sum of four tickets off my account, ,but they could have taken two tickets. I play along per ticket, if they could not buy the tickets together, they still could have taken them apart from each other."

Lawyer Sandra Carli also sees another argument that could help her client win. "The rules of the Postcode Lottery state that you are a member until you cancel. Kamal did not. Previous times that he did not have enough money in his account, the money for the tickets were still debited later. Then it was not a problem, but then the price landed. Besides, if you do not pay your rent you get a warning. Now you also get one from the Postcode Lottery, but not then."