Sheffield man throws away £100k winning scratchcard

[dutchman]

A Sheffield postal worker has revealed that he accidentally binned a £100,000 winning scratchcard after misunderstanding the rules.

Cemal Celikkanat said that his life has been wrecked because of the mistake.

The 38-year-old told the Sheffield Star that he had mistakenly thought the three £100,000 symbols on Camelot's £100,000 Blue game had to be in the same row to win.

However, by the time he had realised his error, he had already thrown the card away and was unable to find it again.

"When I found out I felt dizzy and dropped to my knees - it was like being hit over the head. I threw away £100,000," he admitted. "I feel so terrible, I think about it every day, it's had a massive impact on my life."

Celikkanat went on to say that he had subsequently split up with his wife over rows about their financial problems. The father-of-three also claimed that he has been playing scratchcards for six years and is now concerned over how many other winning tickets he may have thrown away.

National Lottery operators Camelot maintains that it will only pay out if the winning scratchcard is produced.

[pollyanna]

If he's been playing scratchcards for 6 years - I don't believe he didn't understand how they worked.

Says he and his wife have financial probs - probably due to his spending on scratchcards

[RandomHero]

one of the guys i work with spends almost 50% of his wages on scratch cards and rest on beer and food we all think hes a idiot for doing it im sure he will find out the value of money probably the hard way. (Oh what it was like no responsibility )

[pollyanna]

You often see folks outside corner shops and supermarkets frantically scratching away in the belief they'll win

Your mate at work will learn the hard way - but it'll be an expensive lesson me thinks.

I only ever bought one scratchcard - didn't win - so never bought another one - nothing to do with the fact I'm tight of course

[dutchman]

You often see folks outside corner shops and supermarkets frantically scratching away in the belief they'll win

There's a commonly held belief that if you've had a long run of losing cards (or anything else for that matter) that the next is almost certain to be a winner when in fact the odds of winning or losing remain exactly the same as they were before. It's known as "The gambler's folly" and even very intelligent people are often fooled by it.

[pollyanna]

Dutchy - if you go on their website - you can actually find out how many top prizes are remaining against each scratchcard. But as you say - your chances of winning remain the same - which is usually zilch.