I won the lottery jackpot but when I went to claim, my state told me I owed them – they are trying to make me pay

A FLORIDA man won $10,000 on a lotto scratch-off, but officials told him he owed money to the state when he went to claim his prize.

The lotto winner needed the money to make mortgage and car payments, but his winnings were held from him because of a discrepancy with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO).

Joe Cheung, an unemployed mechanic from South Florida, tried to cash in a $10,000 ticket at the lottery office in Miami Lakes, about 20 miles southeast of Miami.

However, officials handed him a piece of paper claiming he owed the DEO money, Local 10 News reported in February.

Cheung received unemployment assistance during the Covid pandemic and the state told him he was overpaid and had a debt balance of $7,800, according to the outlet.

However, the outlet said it was not Cheung's fault.

Cheung reportedly was granted forgiveness and the overpayments were waived.

After Local 10 News contacted the DEO with Cheung's information, he got a phone call days later.

“They said there was an error and they said it would take four-to-six weeks to get the check back,” Cheung told the outlet.

“She said it was an error.”

Cheung was going to get his lotto winnings, the outlet said in February.

Before this phone call, Cheung had trouble getting in touch with the DEO.

He reportedly tried talking with the DEO from December 2022 until the beginning of February.

“I called, I left six voicemails, no response, and then the next thing I call again, you hold for four hours and then the line gets cut off,” he said.

The DEO told the outlet that overpayment procedures are used to prevent fraud and that the department's measures to do so have stopped over $23.2billion in fraud.

"To be clear, we realize that just because an overpayment is flagged in an account, it does not mean an overpayment has occurred.

"In fact, many overpayments occur when an overpayment waiver has not been completed by the claimant," the DEO said.

Cheung isn't the only lotto winner in Florida who had been asked for money by the state.

According to the Florida Lottery, from January 2022 to January 2023, 9,804 lotto winners got a letter claiming they owed money with a majority of their debt belonging to the DEO, the outlet reported.