$1M ‘trash’ in lotto lag

Web delay made us toss ticket: suit

A PAIR OF Powerball players called delay of game on New Jersey lottery officials.

The apathy of state Lottery Commission workers in updating their website with winning numbers led one of two New York pals to toss a $1 million Powerball ticket in the trash, a lawsuit charges.

“I punched a hole in my bedroom wall — right through the sheetrock,” Salvatore Cambria told the Daily News. “I took it out on my bedroom. I was so mad and upset and hurt.”

His roommate Erik Onyango of Suffern, N.Y., purchased three lottery tickets across the state line at a 7-Eleven in Mahwah, N.J., according to the federal lawsuit filed in Trenton.

He kept two, and gave the third to Cambria.

The best friends spoke on the phone about 15 minutes after the 11 p.m. drawing on March 23, 2013, with Onyango giving the winning numbers to Cambria off the official lottery commission web site.

Their suit charges the numbers posted there were from the previous drawing. Cambria, 42, said he trashed the ticket after seeing his digits didn’t match.

“I crumpled it up,” he said. “Put it in my Marlboro pack. Put it in my bedroom garbage.”

Cambria and Onyango say they have proof of their claim: The serial numbers of the two losing tickets will show they were purchased before and after the sale of the big ticket.

Their lawyer Edward Logan sounded a somber note: “It’s a sad story ... but they don’t have the ticket, so the lawsuit is a longshot.”