Lottery woman who called wrong number sacked
A lottery presenter has been sacked after calling out a wrong number during a live draw in the United States.
Renny Monk mixed up the six and the nine ball live on air as she announced the results of the New York state lottery.
Although she quickly corrected herself, she was sacked from her £10.79-an-hour job.
Now the former presenter is set to sue the state of New York, claiming she was sacked because she would not take part in a late-night drinking session - not because she confused gamblers.
Ms Monk, who had been a tour guide at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, was one of 300 applicants for the post, which she thought would help her advance her acting and writing career.
But she made the mistake on her third appearance on the daily lottery show as the Win 4 game was drawn, calling out ‘‘six’’ for the third ball when it was actually nine.
Today the she told the New York Post newspaper that while the production staff had ‘‘made the incident into a monumental catastrophe’’, her supervisor had told her not to worry about it.
The next day she went to a sales conference for the state-run game but refused to take part in a late-night drinking and cigar-smoking session with lottery bosses.
At the end of the conference, she was told she was being sacked.
She said that lottery director Margaret DeFrancisco told her: ‘‘Well, Reny, it just seems like you don’t fit in. I think it’s best we part ways.’’
The ex-presenter has written to her union and is looking for a lawyer to take on her case.
‘‘If I’m doing my job according to the guidelines of the lottery and if I don’t smoke or drink, then so be it,’’ she said.
