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A Glitch Stole Christmas: S.C. Lottery Says Error Caused Winning Tickets (npr.org)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The South Carolina lottery game is called Holiday Cash Add-A-Play, and the rules are pretty simple: Get three Christmas tree symbols in any vertical, horizontal or diagonal line, and you win a prize. Monday was Christmas, and some folks in the Palmetto State were feeling jolly. "I don't play the lottery that much," Nicole Coggins of Liberty, S.C., told local NBC affiliate WYFF. "Every once in a while, I'll buy a Powerball ticket, but something told me to buy a lottery ticket." She paid an extra dollar to add a play. The ticket was a winner, and she was excited.
The station says that as word got out about the sudden proliferation of winning tickets, a frenzy ensued. One store manager told WYFF that "it was crazy" as people hurried to buy the tickets. But the Christmas miracle was too good to be true. The South Carolina Education Lottery says a programming error in its computer system vendor is to blame for so many winning tickets. "From 5:51 p.m. to 7:53 p.m., the same play symbol was repeated in all nine available play areas on tickets which would result in a top prize of $500," the lottery said in a statement Wednesday. "No more than five identical play symbols should appear for a single play. As soon as the issue was identified, the Add-A-Play game was suspended immediately to conduct a thorough investigation."
The station says that as word got out about the sudden proliferation of winning tickets, a frenzy ensued. One store manager told WYFF that "it was crazy" as people hurried to buy the tickets. But the Christmas miracle was too good to be true. The South Carolina Education Lottery says a programming error in its computer system vendor is to blame for so many winning tickets. "From 5:51 p.m. to 7:53 p.m., the same play symbol was repeated in all nine available play areas on tickets which would result in a top prize of $500," the lottery said in a statement Wednesday. "No more than five identical play symbols should appear for a single play. As soon as the issue was identified, the Add-A-Play game was suspended immediately to conduct a thorough investigation."
I am not aware of any fine print on lottery tickets excluding wins based on "programming error". The programming defines the game and any error is not the fault of the player.
Your bit about taxpayers paying for this is false as well since the winning are paid from lottery revenues. The lottery exists as a way to fleece (double-dip) taxpayers in the first place. It would cost taxpayers much more if people stopped playing the lottery because the state can arbitrarily rescind winnings.
Which brings another point: most people cash out winning tickets immediately. How will they claw back the money already paid?
Let's just face it: US society is stacked against everyone who isn't in the top 1%
Some years ago, a company lost hundreds of millions of dollars when they screwed up their algorithmic trading software. The exchange reversed some of those trades, but why? If I am on the other side of the trade and I made a profit, why should I lose this just because they claimed that there was an error? As an ordinary small trader, I can't get trades reversed because I made a mistake.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
A programming error is NOT a malfunction. The machine worked exactly as it was rogrammed to. That is by definition not a malfunction.
P.S. I work in the industry and NO casino would get away with this. If a video poker machine or Keno game was programmed incorrectly the gaming commission would force a payout. Sure the casino can take the machine offline and prevent future plays but existing winners would eventually be paid.
Lets try this in a different context, shall we?
When an airbag fails to deploy because of a poorly manufactured part, that is not a malfunction - the part is working exactly as it was manufactured to do - the laws of physics allow no other outcome. Or perhaps the design itself was flawed - still not a malfunction, it is working exactly as designed.
Or maybe, just maybe, the fact that you were thrown through the windshield is evidence that the safety system malfunctioned, since it functioned as designed and implemented, but not as intended?
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.