A watermark caused one woman to belive she won the jackpot on scratch cards

A lotto player thought her dreams just came true when she found a winning number on one of the scratch cards she purchased. She was ecstatic, believing that she just won £80,000, and was miserable when she was informed she only won £2.

Esme Arbous thought her dream retirement was about to materialize when she found that winning number on the card. But her hopes were crushed when Lotto officials said the blurred marking was actually a 3 instead of an 8 and the error was brought about by the watermark. National Lotto operator Camelot is currently taking up the problem to its printers. The company revealed that 24 players have contacted them, mistakenly thinking the 3 was an 8. Esme, on her side, said she was planning to donate to charity a large part of the money she could have won, claiming she planned to hand over at least £15,000 to children's centers.

Esme and her husband Tim, who are residents of Ruislip, Northwest London, were quite disappointed when they were informed of the bad news. She was a contractual worker and was set to retire by November of that year and the win would have been sweet for her since she won't be receiving any pension. The consolation of £2 she won made the situation even more terrible.

The Camelot Group operates the National Lottery in the United Kingdom. It was first awarded the franchise in 1994 and again in 2001 and 2007. The latest franchise covers the period starting 2009 up to 2019, with the possibility of a five-year extension. Every pound expended on the lottery is divided into several expenditures. For example, for a £100 spent on a card, £50 goes to the prize fund, £28 to the charitable causes, £12 to the government, £5 to the retailers and £5 to Camelot. The £5 that goes to Camelot is further broken down into £4.5 for operating expenses and £0.5 for revenue. A Camelot spokesperson commented that the 24 cards that caused some confusion came from a printed batch of over 17 million scratch cards. He said they are speaking with the printing house responsible for manufacturing the cards to minimize the chance of the error happening again in the future. He stressed that the incident does not affect in any way the game's integrity. With this incident, however, some players commented that it's better to just play scratch cards online to eliminate confusion.