Computer glitch costs the Vermont Lottery
Friday August 27th 2010A system wide computer glitch costs the Vermont Lottery this month after extra winners were created as a result of this system error. In the space of 30 minutes 72 Lottery tickets were sold which were almost identical and the executive director of the Vermont Lottery has said that ‘looks can be deceiving as these tickets are not winners’. He has also stated that once a system is place to account for the tickets, the holders of them will get paid for the inconvenience, which could turn out to be quite expensive.
The Vermont Lottery computer system recently underwent a conversion and it is thought that this is what may have contributed to the issue of these tickets. When the computer system could not access fast play numbers it simply defaulted to all ones, which is why so many seeming winning lottery tickets were issued.
Some retailers picked up on the error and refused to sell the tickets, but others were passed onto Vermont Lottery players who paid for the lotto tickets in good faith. This is something the lottery commission says that it cannot ignore, even though they are not technically winning tickets.
It is thought that the error related to the software for the game Red Hot Numbers, which became the fast play option in late June.
The Vermont Lottery rectified the problem as soon as it became apparent that there was one. In the meantime, those lottery players affected by the glitch could expect to see a payout for the lottery tickets that they purchased in the not too distant future.