South Carolina lottery officials say a computer glitch that made winners out of everyone who played a holiday game for two hours on Christmas Day could result in a more than $35 million prize payout — nearly double the initial estimate.
The S.C. Education Lottery Commission announced the new figure Tuesday at a special meeting called to discuss the ongoing fallout from a programming error.
The mistake had players of the Holiday Cash Add-A-Play game seeing three matching Christmas trees printed on ticket after ticket, giving them win after win.
When the Lottery Commission met last month, it valued the potential prize payout at $19.6 million.
The lottery is not cutting any checks until it finds out exactly what happened.
The board on Tuesday announced it is enlisting Gaming Laboratories International of New Jersey to investigate "any and all aspects of the Holiday Cash Add-A-Play game and specifically what caused the game to function as it did on December 25, 2017."
Gaming Laboratories International has been a lottery testing and certification laboratory for more than 25 years.
Intralot, the computer system used by the lottery, has agreed to the audit.
A spokesperson for the lottery told WLTX-TV in Columbia the commission needs the results of the investigation before it can decide on the next steps.
"It has been repeatedly relayed to Intralot that the South Carolina Education Lottery Board of Commissioners cannot make an informed decision without having a full understanding of what exactly happened to cause the repetitive winning holiday cash add-a-play tickets printed on December 25, 2017," the spokesperson told the station.
The Lottery Commission spent most of its Tuesday meeting in executive session, according to its agenda.
The lottery has told players to hold onto their tickets until the investigation is complete.
Who gets the blame for this? Intralot or SCLC??
If they pony up, which I feel they should, it will boost the integrity of their lottery.
Will it be the Grinch before Christmas or the Grinch afterward?
Shall I refer you to, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens?
Why did they hire a firm that is located out of state?
I wonder who they will find in favor of. The players
or the lottery
.
Why can't any of these "glitches" occur when I buy tickets.
I can’t think of a single soul that loves a glitch.
Glitch: a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment.
If ever there was a time to fall deeply in love with a glitch for S.C. lottery players... it’s now!
Talk about the very heavens opening up, and l am not talking about pennies.
http://www.wistv.com/story/36158976/a-legal-challenge-and-contract-dispute-could-put-state-lottery-scholarships-at-stake
The South Carolina Education Lottery wants to switch to a faster, more efficient gaming system.
But the lottery’s interim director says a legal challenge filed this month by the contractor behind the current system could delay the complicated transition process.
In a letter to the state’s Chief Procurement Officer, SCEL Interim Executive Director Hogan Brown calls for lifting an automatic stay imposed after Intralot, Incorporated protested the awarding of a new contract to IGT Global Solutions Corporation.
Intralot won the contract to provide online lottery services to the state in 2008.
The $67.8 million contract was supposed to run for seven years with an optional three-year extension and is scheduled to expire March 14, 2018.
But earlier this year, IGT won a bidding process that opened last October. The new contract totals $77.5 million over 10 years.
Brown says the new system “will be much more efficient and operate with significantly more speed than the almost 10-year-old technology.”
Brown says Intralot’s protest has already put implementation of the new system behind schedule. He says major tasks that must be accomplished between now and next March include building a primary and backup data center, conversion of millions of data records, training SCEL employees, installation of new terminals and internet, cellular and satellite technology, training more than 3,800 retailers and security measures.
Brown says the current system and its equipment need increasing repairs and replacement, but performance will diminish as Intralot employees “are probably already looking for new employment.”
He also says South Carolina’s system needs to be operational by March 14 in order to handle new features being added to the Powerball game nationally in April.
If not, Brown says the state would have to stop offering Powerball tickets.
The SCEL generates more than $1 million a day to support educational purposes and programs including scholarships. This year, the lottery has already turned over about $400 million dollars to the state.
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Was it glitch? or was it done deliberately by Intralot? That's why SCEL wants the audit.
Nothing against Intralot, but since I'm for IGT as a shareholder this will strengthen our stocks which is a good thing.
Just shows system is rigged and vulnerable to hacking.
So all you care about is the money you stand to make as a stockholder and not the truth. Wow that says a lot about you.
That's a stellar display of reading comprehension.
Wow, did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed? I said nothing about not getting to the bottom of the truth, you insinuated that all I care about is making money. Look up IGT versus Intralot and maybe you can figure out why I don't have Intralot stock.
My hope is that SCEL does the right thing by the players.
Lottery organisation is responsible a players deserve money they win !