What should have been a life-changing moment in Arizona has instead turned into a full-blown legal standoff. A $12.8 million lottery jackpot is now sitting in limbo, tied up in a dispute that feels more like a courtroom drama than a feel-good winning story.
At the center of it all is Robert Gawlitza, a manager at a Circle K in Scottsdale, Arizona. The situation began on November 24, 2025, when a customer stopped by the store at Southeast 56th Street and Bell Road to play “The Pick,” a draw game run by the Arizona Lottery. According to legal filings, a clerk accidentally printed 85 tickets at $1 each. The customer, however, only paid for $60 worth. That left 25 tickets sitting on the counter, per Yahoo.
Those tickets reportedly remained there overnight. Here’s where it gets wild. One of those unsold tickets matched all six numbers, making it the jackpot winner. The prize? A jaw-dropping $12.8 million, one of the biggest “The Pick” payouts in Arizona in years, and the largest since 2019.
Arizona Gas Station Employee Buys Abandoned Winning Lottery Ticket
When Gawlitza came in for his shift the next morning, he allegedly learned that a winning ticket had been printed at his store but never purchased. According to the complaint, he found the remaining tickets, clocked out, removed his Circle K uniform, and bought the bundle from a coworker for $10. He then signed the back of the jackpot ticket…