How unfortunate that a woman, who prized her capacities to scoop up winnings from discarded lottery tickets, that once she found a million dollar winner, she is now forced to give back her winnings to the previous winner, who has thrown the ticket away because of an error in the lottery ticket scanning machine.
The woman in questions, Sharon Jones, established herself in making quite an effort, collect a number of tickets while caring for a sick relative. She has already spent a significant amount of her winnings, paying off long-standing debts and providing her children some extra cash.
The previous owner, Sharon Beebe, has argued persuasively that she would not have discarded the winning ticket had the machine not misread it in the first place.
If there is any culprit, it would have to be the state Lottery Commission, whose machine malfunctioned in the first place. To best resolve this matter, the state of Arkansas should award both Sharons with $1 million dollar prizes. Moreover, to prevent future discrepancies and potential lawsuits, the Commission must also write a stipulation for all future lottery entrants, that if they discard their card because of misinformation, they will forfeit any future winnings. The lotteries instituted throughout the state have been set up in order to fund public institutions, like education or public safety. These coffers for these programs should not suffer because of these accidental irregularities.