Up to 394 lottery prizes went uncollected after winning players were told they won nothing

LAST UPDATE | 22 hrs ago

NEARLY 400 LOTTERY prizes were not collected in 2022 after a software update on the National Lottery website delayed the speed at which winning numbers could be verified.

As a result, some players were told their ticket was ‘not a winner’ when, in reality, it was.

The glitch was in place for one month – between September and October in 2022.

In total, €2,299 in prize money went unclaimed as a result of the glitch, the regulator of the National Lottery said, which amounted to a breach in the lottery operator’s licence. The prices ranged from €2 to €250.

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Premier Lotteries Ireland – the operator of the lotto – told The Journal that it paid the total sum of unclaimed money back into the National Lottery Prize fund.

The details of the breach were included in a press release accompanying the Regulator of the National Lottery’s Annual Report for 2023.

The incident is not recorded in either the 2022 report or 2023 report.

A spokesperson for the Regulator has told The Journal that the matter was not concluded in time to be included in the report furnished to the Minister for Finance.

The full details of the incident won’t be made available until next year, when they will be included in the Annual Report for 2024.

Self-checking services on the lottery’s app and in stores were not impacted by the technical glitch. In total, 394 prizes went unclaimed. 

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