Offensive Scratchcard Message Was Just a Coincidence

A New York scratchcard player was stunned recently to discover what appeared to be a message disrespecting him on a card he bought.

Nick Lynough from Elmira bought a $5 Wheel of fortune card from a machine in a bar and started to scratch off the three panels. When he was finished he saw that that the three words combined to make the phrase “You Elmira Trash”.  

The card was produced by IGT and Lynough immediately thought that either it had been tampered with or else someone at the issuing firm was playing a prank on the local people. He felt strongly enough about the matter to contact the Chemung Country Sheriff's Office, where the matter was passed on to the New York State Lottery to investigate.

The gaming commission investigation that was carried out came back reporting that the appearance of these words was random and completely unintentional. Their spokesman Lee Park said to ABC NEWs that it was simply an “unfortunate arrangement of words”.

Interestingly, while the odds of winning the Mega Millions are around one in 258 million, the New York Gaming Commission calculated that the odds of those words appearing on a card are closer to one in 900 million.

The case is now closed, with the Sheriff's office satisfied that no harm as intended by this scratchcard message. However, IGT have been asked to remove the “Trash” section of the possible words, to avoid causing any possible offence in the future.