Overview
- The 2012 Melate 2518 draw was manipulated by airing pre‑recorded segments as live, a breach documented by the Secretaría de la Función Pública.
- Employees linked to Pronósticos and the production contractor colluded, buying or filling 16 winning tickets tied to a jackpot near 160 million pesos, according to press accounts.
- Anomalies surfaced when a technical coordinator noticed purported winners were staff relatives or acquaintances and some employees failed to report to work the next day.
- Investigations by the PGR and internal reviews traced the tickets and recovered roughly 99% of the prize money.
- Regulatory responses banned pre‑recorded lottery transmissions and strengthened oversight, and the Netflix show released in November 2025 dramatizes the case without new legal developments.