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A Glitch Stole Christmas: S.C. Lottery Says Error Caused Winning Tickets (npr.org)

Posted by msmash on from the oops-they-did-it-again dept.

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."

4 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. State should honor the tickets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The state should honor the tickets and not welch. If it was caused by an error, then the state should sue the manufacturer of the tickets for damages.

    1. Re:State should honor the tickets by Lothsahn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This was a fixed-price lottery ticket, not a jackpot style scenario. Payout was $500 per ticket.

      People the article interviewed went and bought tons of tickets, seeing that most were winning. The article cited winners of $18,000 and $10,000 complaining that they were worried they would lose their winnings. I think after you win 36 times, mostly in a row, you know something is up, and you may not win the full $18k.

      But they should still win at least the first $500, IMO.

      --
      -=Lothsahn=-
    2. Re:State should honor the tickets by Train0987 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Disagree. If they played by the rules all those tickets should be valid. They weren't exploiting anything and the wins weren't a result of a malfunction (a programming error is not a malfunction, the game worked as implemented). If this had happened in a casino the state gaming commission would force them to pay all winners.

  2. Re:Can't believe.. by Jason1729 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is a bit misleading to call it an "Education Lottery". It would be more honest to call it a "Public School Lottery". At public schools they aren't going to give kids the math tools to understand why lotteries are a bad idea.