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Lara Johns • Nov 9, 2026 This slip came out of a Scottsdale store printer a year ago. The winning ticket sits with state lottery officials for now. A courtroom will decide who, if anyone, has rightful title. On November 6, 2026, a Maricopa County judge cleared the lawsuit to proceed.
How the Circle K Lottery Ticket Case Started
Rewind to November 24, 2025. Shopper Soonchun Kim walked up to the register inside that Scottsdale shop. She asked for 85 Pick tickets at a dollar each. In Arizona, players call this game The Pick. The format is simple. Players pick six numbers and win the top prize if all six come up at the evening draw.
Then came the problem. Kim only had sixty dollars in her wallet. She paid for what she could afford and walked out. Behind her, 25 slips sat unclaimed.
Later that night came the draw. One of the abandoned slips hit every one of the six numbers for a $12.8 million payout.
The Manager, the Cashier, and the $10 Receipt
Come morning, Robert Gawlitza returned to run the store. He noticed the unclaimed slips from the night before. One slip in the pile, he realized, was the jackpot winner.
His next move ignited the fight. Gawlitza changed into street clothes and clocked off. Then he asked co-worker Marline Ybarra for a favor. She was to ring up the pile of 25 leftovers as a normal sale. The ten-dollar transaction came with a receipt. Beforehand, he had messaged his supervisor to ask whether a purchase was okay. The answer was yes. What he never shared: one winning slip was already in the pile.
The two then agreed to split any prize fifty-fifty. The parent company refused to accept the outcome. It held the slip, dismissed the manager, and went to court in February 2026.
Three Claims on One Circle K Lottery Ticket
Each side points to different grounds.
| Who’s claiming | Their position | What backs it |
| Circle K | The slip belongs to the retailer | A state regulation covering tickets with no paying customer |
| The two staff members | A legitimate staff transaction | A years-old internal practice around unclaimed prints |
| Soonchun Kim | Ownership from the original order | A legal argument the court has yet to detail |
The chain’s position rests on an Arizona administrative rule. If a Pick ticket comes out of the printer but no shopper actually buys it, title shifts to the store. The company’s lawyers also say no one can lawfully pick up a winner once the numbers have been drawn.
Representing Gawlitza is Josh Kolsrud, who paints a very different picture. He says employees at this location had followed a workplace understanding for years. If a ticket printed by mistake, a worker would quietly buy it. That saved the shop from writing it off. Six people, some still with the company and some gone, signed statements under oath backing up his story.
Kim filed her own claim in September 2026. She contends the slip was always rightfully hers given that she placed the original order. On what legal grounds, court papers have yet to clarify.
What the Judge Decided Next
Joseph Kreamer, the presiding judge, heard arguments on November 6, 2026. He ruled the action could proceed. Several side-issues were set aside, including the manager’s argument that his firing broke the law.
What the court needs to settle first: title. Other claims cannot move until a judge fixes an owner. A prior order had already extended how long the slip stays valid. That means the prize is safe from expiring while the case plays out.
What the Circle K Lottery Ticket Case Means for US Players
Legal brawls over a single slip are uncommon. This one shows how messy ticket rights can get past a routine sale. Lottery ownership rules shift from one state to another. In-store habits around unclaimed prints do not always match the official rules. Stories like this one appear in our US lottery news section more often than players realize. An abandoned slip and one employee’s decision can still spark a courtroom case.
Online play removes those headaches. When you deposit at a licensed online casino, ownership attaches to your account the moment the transaction clears. Nothing tangible to lose, and nobody else has standing to show up afterwards and claim it was theirs.
