A Colorado Springs woman who bought scratch tickets with no chance of winning the top prize is suing the owner of the gas station where she bought the tickets a decade ago.
LaVonne Bazemore Watkins said she bought a $2 "Luck of the Zodiac" scratch ticket in hopes of winning the top $10,000 prize. However, she later learned that the last $10,000 award had been claimed more than two months before.
About 20 states, including Colorado, continue to sell scratch tickets after all of the top prizes have been given away.
Colorado Lottery spokeswoman Erika Gonzalez said most games end after the top prizes are gone but she said people aren't just interested in the top prize.
Watkins originally sued the Lottery but recently the state Supreme Court said they were protected the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act.
Players can ask retailers to check which games no longer have a top prize or check the Lottery's Web site -- coloradolottery.com -- before they buy a ticket.
That information wasn't available when Watkins bought her ticket in 1998.