Complaint made after mysterious ‘lost’ lottery ticket

The 71-year-old woman from Reims, known only as Marie - according to local newspaper France Info - is citing “loss of luck” and trying to find out if her ticket had any value, after a local tobacconist allegedly lost it.

Marie claims she bought the ticket at her usual bar-tabac (tobacco shop) for €4,40, but did not have chance to check the lottery numbers that day - neither online nor on the TV - and had not made a note of the number on her ticket, because she was busy hosting a birthday dinner for friends that evening.

However, the next day, a friend took the ticket to another bar-tabac on the other side of the town to check the numbers, at which point the woman behind the counter looked at the ticket, and then went into the back of the shop.

When she came back to the counter, the tobacconist claimed to have lost the ticket.

Marie’s friend, who is elderly and struggles to move easily, said she was not able to kneel down on the floor herself to look for the ticket, and the tobacconist claimed that it was not possible to check under the counter, because it was “stuck to the floor”.

The tobacconist said she would have a proper look in the bar-tabac for the “lost” ticket later in the day, but neither Marie nor her friend ever heard from her.

When the two women went to the shop together later that week, the tobacconist’s husband allegedly became very angry, claiming that they had not found the ticket, and saying, “That’s just how it is, if it’s lost, it’s lost”.

Now, Marie is making a formal complaint to the FDJ, after contacting them initially, and not receiving a reply for two months.

“I called the customer service line several times, and after two months, they simply said they were sorry, but could not give me any more details on my ticket [so] I decided to make a formal complaint,” she said.

When contacted by FranceInfo, the FDJ said it had been in contact with the tobacconist in question, but was unlikely to be able to help because “the client [Marie] has not been able to give us the number of her ticket”. Similarly, when contacted, the tobacconist itself said it could not comment, as it “was not up-to-date with the facts” of the case.

Marie’s lawyer, Me Ludot, says it is now “up to the judge to evaluate the levels of loss of luck, and the probability of gain”. The case will be be heard in the Reims commercial court on November 14.