McCormick v. Multi State Lottery Association ( 2023 )

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Mark McCormick, No. CV-23-00525-PHX-DLR 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 Arizona Lottery, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 16 Pending is Plaintiff Mark McCormick’s application to proceed without prepaying 17 fees and costs (Doc. 2), which will be granted. The Court must screen Mr. McCormick’s 18 complaint to ensure it states a plausible claim. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2); Lopez v. Smith, 203 19 F.3d 1122, 1127 (9th Cir. 2000). Mr. McCormick claims the Multi-State Lottery 20 Association, the official lottery agencies of several states, and various retailers have 21 conspired to prevent him from winning a lottery jackpot. In particular, Mr. McCormick 22 alleges he should have won the $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot on November 7, 2022, but 23 was robbed of his rightful prize through a number-swapping scheme. 24 Mr. McCormick’s complaint does not state a plausible claim to relief. See Denton 25 v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33 (1992) (explaining a case is frivolous if the facts alleged are 26 “fanciful,” “fantastic,” and/or “delusional”). The odds of winning the Powerball are 27 approximately 1 in 292.2 million. See http://www.powerball.com/powerball-prize-chart. It 28 is implausible that an elaborate, decades-long conspiracy is the reason Mr. McCormick has 1 || not won. Instead, Mr. McCormick, like the vast majority of lottery players, just didn’t beat 2|| the odds. Because no additional factual allegations will make Mr. McCormick’s conspiracy || theory plausible, 4 IT IS ORDERED that, although Mr. McCormick’s application to proceed without 5 || prepaying fees and costs (Doc. 2) is GRANTED, his complaint (Doc. 1) is DISMISSED. 6 || The Clerk of the Court is directed to terminate this case. 7 Dated this 31st day of March, 2023. 8 9 10 {Z, 11 _- Ae 12 Upited States Dictric Judge 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 _2-