Indiana Lottery Pulls Scratch-Off After Tickets Appear to Show $100,000 Prizes Worth Only $20

Mike Fields scratched off four Space Invaders Cash Invasion tickets and thought he'd won $100,000. He and his wife drove to the Hoosier Lottery's downtown Indianapolis office to sort things out. A scanner told them the ticket was worth $20.

When they got to the lottery office, they found they weren't alone. Other players were there with the same story — tickets that appeared to show large prizes, scanners that said something completely different.

The Hoosier Lottery confirmed to reporters that it became aware of a "technical issue" with the newly launched $5 Space Invaders Cash Invasion scratch-off on June 2 and has since suspended sales of the game entirely.

"We have halted the sales of the ticket to ensure the game experience upholds the integrity we strive to provide our players," lottery spokesperson Jared Bond said.

Players who showed up at the Indianapolis office were told the matter is under investigation and that they would be contacted by mail within four to six weeks. Whether that contact will come with good news — that the tickets are actually worth what they appeared to show — or an explanation of why they aren't, hasn't been clarified publicly.

What Players Should Do Now

If you bought a Space Invaders Cash Invasion scratch-off and think something is off with your prize amount, the Hoosier Lottery is directing affected players to call 1-800-955-6886 or email Info@HoosierLottery.com. There's also a formal complaint and protest process through the game's web page.

The lottery's $5 Space Invaders Fast Play game and its associated second-chance promotion are still available — only the scratch-off has been pulled.

The gap between what Fields's ticket appeared to show and what the scanner said — $100,000 versus $20 — is not a small rounding error. That's the kind of discrepancy that sends people to the lottery office in the first place. Whether this is a printing error, a scanning error, or something else entirely is what investigators are presumably trying to figure out.

Four to six weeks is a long time to wait when you think you might have won $100,000.

Can Anyone Actually Sue Over This?

People are asking and it's a fair question — especially if you spent the last week mentally spending $100,000 that turned out to be $20.

The hard reality is that suing the lottery itself is an uphill battle. Indiana's Hoosier Lottery, like most government-run lotteries, operates under terms that make the official lottery records — not the printed ticket — the final word on prize amounts. In other words, the lottery essentially built a legal escape hatch for exactly this kind of situation. The ticket appearing to show $100,000 doesn't mean you won $100,000.

What about the retailer who sold the ticket or the scanner that gave the wrong reading? Also tricky. If the error originated with the lottery's own printing or software process the retailer is largely just a middleman who had no control over what the ticket showed. It's hard to sue someone for accurately reporting what a defective product said.

As for emotional distress — yes, that's technically a legal claim, but courts set a pretty high bar. Stress and disappointment from a lottery ticket confusion generally won't meet the threshold for a compensable mental anguish claim. Now, if someone quit their job, made major financial decisions, or suffered a documented psychological breakdown based on a prize they believed they'd won — there might be something to argue. But those are extreme circumstances.

The most realistic outcome here is that the Hoosier Lottery's investigation either confirms the tickets were misprinted winners — in which case affected players should get paid — or determines the tickets were never valid winners, in which case players get an explanation and a frustrating lesson about reading the fine print on lottery games.

Four to six weeks for a letter. In the meantime, maybe hold off on putting in your two weeks notice.

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