Ticket from Pennsylvania Lottery’s Triple Six Fix scandal going up for auction

Almost 50 years ago, a Pennsylvania Lottery scandal rocked the commonwealth and captured the attention of the world. Now it’s going up for auction.

Television viewers on Thursday, April 24, 1980, thought they were watching another random lottery drawing when the numbers 666 were drawn. But weeks later, Nick Perry, a local Pittsburgh news reporter and host of the drawing, was charged and convicted of rigging the game. Investigators learned he made some balls heavier than others by adding extra paint to them, tipping the outcome.

That drawing, and the 666 lottery tickets, would go down in infamy. And now, a 46-year-old artifact at the center of the scandal is up for sale. 

John Zenewicz likes to go to estate sales and has a side hustle selling finds on eBay. He said he was at an estate sale in Saxonburg when he saw a 666 ticket sitting on a dresser. 

“I remember the style of ticket because my dad would buy them when I was a boy,” said John Zenewicz. “And I was like, ‘why would someone encase an old lottery ticket?’ and the only thing that could pop to my mind was that story that I remember. I was 10 years old.”

Zenewicz suspects the homeowners had no idea what they were selling. 

“What I presume, it’s one of the tickets that was probably confiscated as evidence in Nick Perry, what the locals call the Triple Six Fix,” he said.  

After a little more research, Zenewicz said he realized one of the previous owners of the home worked in law enforcement at the time of the scandal. He suspects he may have been part of the team prosecuting Nick Perry. Perry served two years in jail, was fined $3,000 and was ordered to pay $35,000. 

Perry died in 2003, but at least one of the tickets at the center of it all remains. And now, Zenewicz says he is selling his 666 ticket on eBay, giving someone else a chance to own a piece of history.