Lottery winner's millions were a mistake, oversight

A $2.8 million winner of the California Lottery's television show never should have been given the opportunity to win the top prize, according to allegations raised in an Assembly oversight committee hearing today.

Instead, Josefina Sineriz, 61, of Bakersfield should have received only $2,000 in lottery winnings, documents the committee obtained show.

The documents did not identify Sineriz by name but listed a chain of events that pointed to the Bakersfield woman and others who participated in a Feb. 8 taping of the "Make Me A Millionaire" show.

Bill Ainsworth, lottery spokesman, said lottery officials do not believe the winning was tainted, but regardless they have no intention of trying to retrieve Sineriz's $2.8 million.

"In no way," Ainsworth said. "We never would do that."

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, a South Gate Democrat who chairs the oversight committee, released a lottery "incident report" that suggested procedural errors were made in the TV show's taping.

De La Torre, in a public hearing of the oversight committee, said the report indicates that contestants' names were transposed, resulting in 17 of them being assigned to a different contest than the one they were entitled to play on the TV show.

Contests essentially are games played on a particular TV show, such as Millionaire, Safe Cracker, California Cool or Lucky Penny. Potential winnings vary for each one.

Lottery chief Joan Borucki told the committee that she was not familiar with the alleged incident and asked for time to review it.

Ainsworth said later that a human error had occurred in assigning players to contests but that it did not alter a player's odds of winning.

"There was no violation of fairness or integrity," Ainsworth said.

The lottery incident report released by De La Torre suggests that the error caused some contestants to compete for more money, and some for less, than they otherwise would have been entitled to seek.

For example, one contestant -- apparently Sineriz -- won $2.8 million when she should not have been entitled to compete in that game, the lottery incident report shows.

Another contestant won $30,000, but if names had not been transposed, that person would have been able to vie for the $2.8 million prize.

The contestants themselves would not have been aware of the mistake, De La Torre said.

Ainsworth described a process in which multiple games are taped on the same day for airing on future "Make Me A Millionaire" shows.

Contestants are promised at least $2,000 and the opportunity to be assigned, through random selection, to a contest providing a chance to win much more than that -- up to $2.8 million.

The error resulted in some people being assigned to a different game than they otherwise would have, but nonetheless, a random draw ultimately determined which contest they competed in, Ainsworth said.

Ainsworth's contention, basically, is that no harm was done.

"While there was a violation of our practice that we put together, there was absolutely no violation of the randomness," he said.

The Lottery currently is considering what to do, if anything, about the nine people who played contests offering less money than they otherwise would have been entitled to seek.

"We're right now in the process of determining whether we can give those folks a remedy, and whether we should give those folks a remedy," Ainsworth said.

A quorum was not present at today's meeting of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, but De La Torre announced that he will ask members to request that the state auditor investigate the allegations.

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