Lottery error prompts payout on two sets of winning numbers

Jan 6, 2011, 1:30 pm (6 comments)

Win For Life

By Todd Northrop

An incorrect number reported by the Virginia Lottery for Wednesday night's Win For Life drawing has prompted the participating states of Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia to payout on two sets of winning numbers.

Win For Life is a multi-state lottery game played in Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia.  Players choose six numbers from 1 to 42, and can win one of eight different prizes, ranging from $2 to the Grand prize of $1,000 a week for life.

The third number drawn for the game Wednesday night was 6, but was incorrectly reported by the Virginia drawing staff as a 9.  As a consequence of this error, prizes will be paid out for Win For Life lottery tickets bearing either of the following two winning number combinations for the Wed., Jan. 5, 2011 drawing:

  • 3, 8, 9, 17, 21, 30, Free Ball: 31
  • 3, 6, 8, 17, 21, 30, Free Ball: 31

Kentucky Lottery officials confirmed that there were no grand prize winners or second-prize winners in Kentucky for either of the numerical combinations.

The drawing error cost the state of Kentucky $21,742 in extra prize payouts.

Georgia and Virginia additional winners and prize payouts were not known at publication time.

Drawing video

The drawing video can be watched below, and clearly shows the number "6" being drawn as the third number, with the announcer correctly identifying it as a "6".

The error, therefore, occurred as a result of the Virginia draw staff incorrectly recording the number as a "9" in their computer system.  The incorrect results were then sent to the Georgia and Kentucky lotteries, which then recorded the incorrect winning numbers in their systems.

The Win For Life lottery results published at Lottery Post contains both sets of winning numbers, and can be viewed at: www.lotterypost.com/game/305/results.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

RJOh's avatarRJOh

I would think they would electronically take the numbers directly from the source that put them on the screen at the drawing since every time numbers are manually re-entered in a system there's a chance of an error.

joshuacloak's avatarjoshuacloak

rofl, the classic 6 -9 mistaken error, o this is some funny <snip> Virginia Lottery got itself into

yes a 6 does look like a 9 upside down and likewise for 9 , ROFL

This post has been automatically changed by the Lottery Post computer system to remove inappropriate content and/or spam.

sully16's avatarsully16

The lottery fairy works in mysterious ways. Congrats to the winners.Cheers

socalgal's avatarsocalgal

They got it on video. ROFL

Congrats to the winners.

tiggs95's avatartiggs95

This affected tiggs to the tune of 6 whole dollars..Oh boy oh boy!!..

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by tiggs95 on Jan 10, 2011

This affected tiggs to the tune of 6 whole dollars..Oh boy oh boy!!..

can you imagine the person who didn't know and threw their tickets away....yikes.

End of comments
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