Washington Lottery published wrong numbers after raffle draw

Jan 3, 2013, 7:32 pm (52 comments)

Washington Lottery

Blames 'computer glitch'

SEATTLE, Wa. — A North Seattle man couldn't believe his eyes. His ticket in the lottery's Veteran's Raffle was a winner.

He checked the numbers, and then checked them again.  "I was so excited! I couldn't believe I had won the lottery!" he said.

The problem is, he didn't. What he thought was a $1,000 winner was a dud.

"I got up early and went to the lottery office, and they told me my ticket was invalid," he said.

Lottery officials say a computer glitch posted the wrong numbers online Wednesday night. The numbers posted were not the numbers actually drawn.

"Unfortunately, those are not winning tickets and, by state law, we cannot honor any of them," said lottery spokesman Arlen Harris.

Marketed as "the easiest way to win $1 million," tickets for the raffle were $10 each and the proceeds benefit veterans causes in the state.

Lottery officials believe there are 131 bad tickets out there. They concede there may also be people out there who thought they lost after checking numbers last night and are actually winners. One of them could have thrown away $1 million. The million dollar winner has not yet come forward.

"We are terribly sorry about this," said Harris. "We are bringing in a third party to audit our system to make sure this never happens again and that people retain their faith in the state lottery."

Lottery Post has the full set of correct numbers posted online at its Washington Lottery Results page.

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

King 5 News, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Ronnie316

Now I would go in the dumpster for one of those $1.000.000 winners.....

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by Ronnie316 on Jan 3, 2013

Now I would go in the dumpster for one of those $1.000.000 winners.....

Just don't get stuck.

Ronnie316

In fact if there wasnt so much rain there, I would leave now and become a dumpster diver.....

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Jan 3, 2013

Just don't get stuck.

Im bringing my cell phone...... In case I get trapped.......

LottoGuyBC's avatarLottoGuyBC

Quote: Originally posted by Ronnie316 on Jan 3, 2013

Im bringing my cell phone...... In case I get trapped.......

fogot to charge battery Thud

LottoGuyBC's avatarLottoGuyBC

makes you wanna hold on to them tickets a little longer Poke

Todd's avatarTodd

Im all seriousness, this stuff is very upsetting.  There is no way a state lottery should publish an entire list of wrong numbers without anyone noticing.

I personally publish dozens of raffle results every year here at Lottery Post.  I am just one person, and it's a lot of work.  But still, every time I publish the results the first thing I do is to open the Web page myself and verify that everything is correct.  If I find an error, I correct it immediately.

So you're telling me that a state lottery with employees dedicated to this stuff cannot spend a few extra minutes to get everything perfect?

I am sure the employee who published the wrong numbers is absolutely mortified by their mistake.  But it should never happen in the first place.  If I can do it, and still run the rest of this entire site/business, then certainly lottery employees who don't have quite so many responsibilities can do it.

You don't need to hire a professional auditor to do this, as was suggested by the lottery spokesman.  You simply need to ensure that people LOOK AT WHAT THEY PUBLISH AFTER THEY FINISH PUBLISHING IT.

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Jan 3, 2013

Im all seriousness, this stuff is very upsetting.  There is no way a state lottery should publish an entire list of wrong numbers without anyone noticing.

I personally publish dozens of raffle results every year here at Lottery Post.  I am just one person, and it's a lot of work.  But still, every time I publish the results the first thing I do is to open the Web page myself and verify that everything is correct.  If I find an error, I correct it immediately.

So you're telling me that a state lottery with employees dedicated to this stuff cannot spend a few extra minutes to get everything perfect?

I am sure the employee who published the wrong numbers is absolutely mortified by their mistake.  But it should never happen in the first place.  If I can do it, and still run the rest of this entire site/business, then certainly lottery employees who don't have quite so many responsibilities can do it.

You don't need to hire a professional auditor to do this, as was suggested by the lottery spokesman.  You simply need to ensure that people LOOK AT WHAT THEY PUBLISH AFTER THEY FINISH PUBLISHING IT.

I Agree!

Original Bey's avatarOriginal Bey

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Jan 3, 2013

Im all seriousness, this stuff is very upsetting.  There is no way a state lottery should publish an entire list of wrong numbers without anyone noticing.

I personally publish dozens of raffle results every year here at Lottery Post.  I am just one person, and it's a lot of work.  But still, every time I publish the results the first thing I do is to open the Web page myself and verify that everything is correct.  If I find an error, I correct it immediately.

So you're telling me that a state lottery with employees dedicated to this stuff cannot spend a few extra minutes to get everything perfect?

I am sure the employee who published the wrong numbers is absolutely mortified by their mistake.  But it should never happen in the first place.  If I can do it, and still run the rest of this entire site/business, then certainly lottery employees who don't have quite so many responsibilities can do it.

You don't need to hire a professional auditor to do this, as was suggested by the lottery spokesman.  You simply need to ensure that people LOOK AT WHAT THEY PUBLISH AFTER THEY FINISH PUBLISHING IT.

One meticulous individual versus 10 casual "so called" professionals produces a clear winner every time.

 

Detail oriented is obviously not a competency required for that job!

 

If that ticket goes unclaimed heads need to roll on this one

seadrink's avatarseadrink

 Washington State recently passed the law making marijuna legal.  Could be those officials took a " recreational smoke break"Hippy before posting

 those losers.Green laugh

Nikkicute's avatarNikkicute

Quote: Originally posted by Original Bey on Jan 3, 2013

One meticulous individual versus 10 casual "so called" professionals produces a clear winner every time.

 

Detail oriented is obviously not a competency required for that job!

 

If that ticket goes unclaimed heads need to roll on this one

Computer glitch, they blamed it on the computer anyway!!

 

No one here likes RNG for lottos, maybe they should go back to the good old

fashion raffels where they hand pick the numbers and someone writes them down

or someone hand pick names, ya can't mess up names right? lol and two people double check,

I don't know...

 

To see those numbers on the screen, wake up early to go to the lotto office only to find out you

did not win, what an awful feeling!! The numbers should stay as they are, unless the computer

picked numbers not on the list at all.

RedStang's avatarRedStang

I hope VA & CT did'nt do this. Mine are in the woodstove.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

We've gotten used to a lot of things that used to piss us off.

We've been kinda conditioned to expect gross negligence and incompetence at the fast food drive-up window.

And mailmen not being able to distinguish between one address and another when they deliver the mail. 

And libs having vehicles backed up for a mile behind them as they drive slow in the passing lane.

But this... publishing the wrong numbers and saying you're going to call in an auditing firm to make sure you don't screw things up again...

Now that would really piss me off if I had a ticket with winning numbers they published in error due to their utter incompetence.

sully16's avatarsully16

There's no excuse for this , they should all be fired.

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