jeremy.j.epstein@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:21:30 -0400
An upgrade to software used to run the Virginia lottery meant that a few hundred tickets were sold that could not win the main jackpot. The selection criteria changed during the upgrade (and the price per ticket went from $1 to $2), and for a short period of time tickets were sold that met the old rules but not the new ones, and hence could not win. They could still win the other prizes, just not the jackpot.
Although the normal odds of winning the lottery are near-zero, reducing them to actual zero is a (microscopically small) RISK.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no-chance-of-winning-big-jackpot-in-virginia-mega-millions-for-some-players/2017/10/31/1d6914b0-be2b-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html
[microscopic? Not if anyone who actually had the winning combination
tried to sue the state -- and won!]