Powerball Lottery Buyer Caught Out When She Paid For Tickets By Credit Card

January 26, 2016 Ken Silver

A Powerball winner at a Michigan Lottery press conference last year.

It was the first time the Michigan woman had used her credit card to play the lottery.

Becky Landry of Tecumseh caught Powerball fever when the jackpot soared beyond $1 billion, so she bought $20 worth of tickets.

However, she later discovered she was charged a $10 transaction fee for a cash advance, as well as daily interest by her credit card company, Chase.

Jeff Holyfield“I don’t play (lottery) that often and I’ve never used my credit card (to buy tickets), but I did this time because there was a sign at the store saying you could. It was convenient because I didn’t have cash on me, but I wanted to get some tickets,” Landry said.

She bought the tickets at a store on South Maumee Street in Tecumseh, which recently put in the state lottery-issued machine for credit card sales. It seemed to be a smooth transaction, Landry said.

However, she later looked at her credit card account online and saw that the transaction went through as a cash advance, which raised a red flag because it was a purchase.

She said she called Chase Bank and was told by a representative they don’t allow lottery purchases on credit cards, however they did waive the fee and interest.

It’s her hope to raise some awareness about her confusing situation, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Michigan Lottery spokesman Jeff Holyfield said as far as he can tell Landry’s situation is an isolated one. He added lottery sales through credit cards is allowable.

“It is legal to use credit cards and debit cards despite what Chase told her,” Holyfield said and added there were thousands of credit card lottery transaction in the past month and no other similar situations were reported.