A woman, formerly homeless, wants to recover a prize she won years ago thanks to a game of chance.
Rachel has been fighting for 9 years now to win her case.
For years, this sixty-year-old, of Israeli origin, has been trying as best she can to recover a jackpot of 20,000 euros which is rightfully hers. Unfortunately so far, all his efforts have been in vain. The fault lies in a check that she was never able to cash.
A grotesque situation which arises from an administrative problem.
Illustrative image. Photo credit: screenshot / You Tube
She wins €20,000 at Blackjack, but she can’t collect the winnings
This story, told by our colleagues from Le Parisien, begins in 2015.
That year, Rachel, then aged 56, lived on the streets in the Paris region and often played games of chance, hoping to make ends meet. On January 22, she scratched a Blackjack ticket and pocketed, to her great surprise, the sum of 20,000 euros. Once the astonishment has passed, she breathes a big sigh of relief, as this financial boost turns out to be unexpected. It must be said that at that time, Rachel was homeless so with this gain, she finally hoped to bounce back.
“ I didn’t sleep all night because I was so happy “, she said.
But her joy will be short-lived, because very quickly, Rachel understands that to receive this gain, she will have to complete a real obstacle course. After experiencing an initial refusal in a Française des Jeux center, she finally managed to collect her check in another establishment, located in the Parisian district of Châtelet. Alas, this is the beginning of the problem.
Having no papers, she cannot open a bank account and therefore cannot deposit the money she has earned.
Time passes and Rachel can’t find a solution. To avoid losing her winnings, she is obliged to have the check reissued in 2017, 2018 and 2019. But when the Covid-19 health crisis starts in 2020, she cannot repeat the process. And to make matters worse, Rachel falls ill in the process and finds herself in a dead end.
Photo credit: iStock
Since then, a lawyer, Me Najet Mehenni-Azizi, has decided to help her so that she can win her case, but the obstacles are numerous.
“ We are facing a knot. Impossible to go to the consulate to redo your passport. She has to go back to Israel to do it again, but she will never be able to return without a residence permit », deplores Me Najet Mehenni-Azizi.
For its part, the FDJ now refuses to reissue the check again due to the lack of regularization of Rachel’s situation. The company also does not want to deposit the money into a third party’s account.
Rachel therefore has no other choice but to wait until she obtains her residence permit, which she requested in 2023.
To be continued.
