Circle K has turned to a Maricopa County judge to sort out who really owns a $12.8 million Arizona Lottery ticket, after a routine shift at a Scottsdale store left a life changing jackpot tied to a slip that was printed but never paid for. The Pick jackpot hit on Nov. 24, 2025, and the disputed play traces back to a Circle K at Bell Road and 56th Street in Scottsdale. According to court papers, a clerk printed 85 Pick slips for a customer who paid for only 60, leaving 25 unsold; one of those leftovers matched all six drawn numbers.
According to Phoenix New Times, Circle K's lawsuit says store manager Robert Gawlitza found the unsold batch the next morning, then clocked out, changed out of his uniform and allegedly bought the winning slip from a coworker for $10 before signing the back of the ticket. The complaint says Circle K corporate took possession of the ticket that same day and is asking a judge to declare "whether the Ticket was validly sold and to whom" and "who is entitled to claim any prize proceeds." News reports put the jackpot at about $12.8 million.
How state rules frame ownership
State regulations treat draw game tickets that are printed but not resold as the property of the retailer, a rule laid out in Arizona Administrative Code § R19-3-213. Retailers are on the hook for the cost of tickets whether they sell them or not, and the Arizona Lottery considers an unresold ticket to belong to the retailer. The Lottery's own retailer policies also forbid employees from playing while on duty and warn that breaking those rules can put a retailer's license at risk; those details are spelled out in the Lottery's retailer rules.
Why Circle K went to court
Instead of immediately staking an outright claim to the jackpot, Circle K asked a Superior Court judge for a ruling on who, if anyone, validly bought the ticket and who is allowed to claim the prize, according to filings reviewed by Phoenix New Times. Gregg Edgar, who led the Arizona Lottery from 2016 to 2023, told the outlet he had "not ever encountered something like this" and said that, in practical terms, a wager at draw time is often viewed as being in the retailer's hands, although he added that the court will likely have the final word.
What is at stake
Under Arizona Lottery rules, draw game tickets must be claimed within 180 days of the drawing, which puts the Nov. 24 deadline at May 23. If no one makes a valid claim by that date, a portion of the jackpot is directed to the Lottery's beneficiaries and the rest returns to the prize pool, according to the Lottery's public materials. Hoodline covered the original November jackpot report when the win first surfaced in the Valley earlier.
Local precedent and context
Arizona has watched multimillion dollar prizes evaporate before. In 2019, a $14.6 million The Pick jackpot was never claimed and the money was redirected to state beneficiaries. The Circle K dispute now tests how those same state regulations apply when a printed but unsold ticket later turns into a jackpot winner. For the moment, the ticket remains with Circle K corporate and the question of who gets the cash is in a judge's hands while the May 23 claim window keeps ticking down.
