Lottery integrity called into question as media blows issues out of proportion

Exclusive Lottery Post investigative report

By Kate Northrop

The Connecticut Lottery is being forced to revisit a 2023 software glitch that caused confusion for some players trying to claim prizes — and this time it's being made worse by local media blowing the matter out of proportion.

What started a technical hiccup has spiraled into accusations of cover-ups and violations of integrity. In June 2023, Lottery officials reportedly took thirteen days to notify the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) about a software glitch that affected over 500 tickets and resulted in $2,000 worth of lost prize payouts, which technically violated state law that requires immediate communication of such issues to regulators.

Local media outlets have seized upon the reporting delay and subsequent DCP investigation to paint a more sinister picture, using internal documents to imply that management at the Connecticut Lottery Corporation (CLC) attempted to sweep the issue under the rug and conceal it from the public.

Yet, a deeper investigation reveals a far more complex and nuanced story than what made headlines. While the Lottery accepted responsibility for its delayed reporting through a settlement agreement with the DCP, media reports have notably omitted crucial context about the Lottery's efforts to maintain transparency amid the aftermath of a software bug.

A massive system overhaul triggers growing pains and glitches

Last month, Connecticut Lottery Corporation (CLC) President and CEO Frank Suarez fielded questions from state representatives about an incident that occurred in the spring of 2023 that caused hundreds of players to lose out on a cumulative $2,000 in winnings on approximately 500 tickets.

Suarez, who previously served as the Executive Director of the DC Lottery, was recently appointed as head of the CLC in August 2024, well over a year after the incident had taken place. Former CEO Gregory Smith oversaw the corporation during a lottery system changeover from their Scientific Games system to the International Gaming Technology (IGT)-powered Aurora system in May 2023.

"CLC devotes significant resources to holding the highest standards of game integrity and player safety," Suarez said at an informational hearing before legislators in January. "I have personally reviewed CLC's standard testing procedures, and I'm confident that the processes for testing are rigorous and sound. Our players and retailers should feel assured that the CLC gaming system is operating effectively since its launch, and we just launched a new gaming system in 2023. The new gaming system has successfully processed more than 605 million transactions and paid out more than $1.3 billion in prizes."

The system changeover that occurred on May 21, 2023 was less of an update and more of a massive overhaul two years in the making. It consisted of entirely different equipment and software, including new lottery terminals installed at every one of the Lottery's 2,900 licensed retailers as well as greater capability for the Lottery to offer more digital products in the future.

Unfortunately, the transition was not as seamless as players and retailers would have hoped. At launch, retailers initially struggled with the new machines, and some players were unable to scan certain draw tickets for several games purchased before the system conversion. The Lottery resolved the problem within three days, and players were encouraged to check their tickets once more.

"This condition has been corrected so that these ticket holders can now attempt to validate their tickets, and learn if they won a prize or not," a statement from the Lottery read at the time. "No tickets were erroneously recorded as winners or non-winners due to this condition. CLC apologizes for any inconvenience."

For context, switching an entire statewide lottery system from one technology provider to another is a tremendous feat that takes time to implement and prepare for. It's common industry practice for state lotteries to rigorously test a multitude of scenarios to try to "break" the system and locate any hidden errors that could pop up in real life. Oftentimes, there are glitches that slip by, and so it is unsurprising that there are unexpected malfunctions that appear after the rollout.

The reason these errors might slip by is because of how unique the circumstance to trigger an error might be. For example, scanning tickets in a specific order, checking tickets for certain draw games, or timing the scan in a particular way could all be ways in which the software "breaks."

To make sure it doesn't happen again in the future, a Lottery can add the new situation to the existing testing parameters for future rollouts.

However, many of these errors do involve winnings, and when fair distribution of prizes or the integrity of games are impacted, the Lottery is required by law to report these instances to the state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) in a timely manner.

A breakdown of the core issue: anatomy of a software glitch

According to documents released to Hearst Connecticut Media under a Freedom of Information Act request, the DCP found a "lapse in communications" by the CLC and IGT for reporting glitches related to the system overhaul. CT Insider, owned by Hearst Connecticut Media, also cited an email correspondence between the CLC and DCP that, according to the media outlet, "would have prevented public disclosure of the issues," insinuating that the Lottery was underhandedly trying to bury its problems and skirt state law.

Lottery Post's investigation found this couldn't be further from the truth.

In addition to the ticket scanning error that occurred the day of the system launch, there were other issues that came up over the subsequent months following the rollout.

The main issue under scrutiny involves a software error that caused just over $2,000 in unclaimed winnings for about 500 tickets. It was a bug that could only be triggered by "a very specific set of circumstances," Connecticut Lottery Manager of Public Affairs Arthur Mongillo told Lottery Post.

"You had to scan several tickets in a row, there had to be different games on each ticket, and the communication [in the system] needed to fail, even for a split second," Mongillo explained. "In between a non-winner and a winner, they needed to represent two different games."

Regrettably, this specific instance was one of those extremely distinct glitches that slipped by during the testing phase prior to the launch.

"It's not even something we would have been able to test for because it was just such a really unique circumstance," Mongillo elaborated. "Envision a retailer scanning several tickets in a row quickly with different games on every ticket, and even if there was a blip in the communications — like how sometimes your Wi-Fi at home will 'blink out' for a second — that's all it took for that [error] to be triggered."

Even worse was the timing of the error. The Lottery was notified of the issue on Friday, June 9, 2023, right before the weekend. This led to confusion and left Lottery staff scrambling to fix the problem when they returned to the office the following Monday. The issue was fixed on Tuesday, June 13, four days later.

A reporting delay snowballs into misconceptions

CT Insider's concern with the Lottery's handling of the situation does not necessarily lie with how long it took for the error to be fixed, but rather the delay in communicating it to the DCP. Since the Lottery had reported it to the DCP on June 13, 2023 after learning about it on June 9, 2023, it meant that they had failed to notify the Department in a timely manner and had technically broken state law.

As a result, the DCP instructed the CLC to pay $16,000 in fines to problem gambling programs and require its staff to attend two special training sessions to review the standard procedures in place if and/or when similar incidents happen in the future. Additionally, the DCP officially codified the reporting timeline to mean "immediately" when issues are either suspected or discovered.

CT Insider also allegedly received a "trove of DCP records" that suggested the Lottery attempted to prevent public disclosure of the penalty, including one email from Sept. 8, 2024 with language that was later "rejected" by the DCP.

"DCP and CLC agree that they shall not issue any press release, conduct any press or news conference, participate in any media interview, or otherwise make any public statement or announcement with respect to, or in connection with this agreement and the allegations contained therein," the email from CLC reportedly reads.

In conversation with the Connecticut Lottery, Lottery Post discovered that CT Insider failed to mention that the CLC had specifically created a Freedom of Information Act carve-out to allow public access to this information.

"That wasn't true at all," Mongillo clarified, referring to CT Insider's interpretation of the email. "There was a carve-out for FOIA in that as well, so that would uphold the public's right to know. For some reason they [CT Insider] opted not to report that, which was troubling for us."

Additionally, CT Insider reported that CLC management told its systems vendor, IGT, "to keep quiet about major glitches involving lottery games despite the state laws mandating the immediate reporting of problems to the state Department of Consumer Protection."

The phrase "keep quiet" suggests another mischaracterization of the Lottery as a shady organization attempting to suppress reputation-damaging information.

During a DCP investigation, an IGT executive reportedly said that the Lottery instructed IGT to "not report any incidents, discrepancies, nor anomalies that could jeopardize the integrity of the lottery games directly to the DCP."

While it's easy to take this statement out of context and paint it in a negative light, it's important to recognize that this IGT executive is merely recounting the reporting structures in place when the error occurred. The Lottery is a state-authorized gaming authority, and it was implied that it held sole responsibility for communications with the DCP regarding any game integrity matters, while IGT was merely the Lottery's third-party technology vendor.

In the time since the software glitch was resolved, there are new regulations in place that weren't there at the time: third-party technology vendors like IGT are now required to report problems, both real and potential, to the DCP in addition to the Lottery.

There was yet another factor in the timeline that CT Insider did not consider: who reported the error in the first place.

One fact the media outlet has correct is the date the glitch began: May 31, 2023. So why didn't the Lottery find out about it until June 9, 2023, a full nine days later?

It's because the very first retailer to report the issue had actually reported it to IGT first, not to the Lottery. After being instructed by IGT's call center to reboot the terminal, the retailer solved the problem on their end and went about their business like nothing had happened.

In fact, Mongillo emphasized, IGT was under the impression that the problem was considered resolved, so they did not feel it necessary to notify the Lottery. With IGT having dismissed the glitch as a one-off and the Lottery none the wiser, the error continued to fester under these exceptionally unique circumstances.

It happened again, but this time it was a Lottery sales representative who discovered the problem when it was reported directly to the Lottery. It wasn't brought to the CLC 's attention until one Lottery sales representative discovered it had happened at another retailer. The sales representative reported it to the Lottery's operations team, and then to IGT, all within less than ten minutes on Friday, June 9, 2023.

"It was over a weekend that it was discovered that this was a serious issue," Mongillo recalled. "...We had no knowledge of any issues until that moment on Friday, June 9th."

The Lottery fixed the error on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 and reported it to the DCP that day. To the Lottery's horror, what felt like a four-day delay was actually a thirteen-day delay, considering the problem first occurred on May 31, 2023.

Amid the confusion going into the weekend, IGT's initial misunderstanding of the gravity of the situation, and the tunnel vision concentration on coming up with a fix as fast as possible, the Lottery took the fall for a runaway software error and reporting delay that had gotten out of hand, all while trying to find a quick solution.

New leadership faces legislative scrutiny

The incident was brought back under the spotlight at this year's General Law Committee Informational Forum on Jan. 27, 2025, where Suarez, though not present at CLC at the time, explained how the reporting delay could be attributed to a few factors that created the perfect storm. The main factors, as previously mentioned, were the timeline and "putting out fires" from over the weekend.

"The Lottery staff is very dedicated to the players and to making sure that players have a great experience," Suarez said. "They're public servants, they don't get anything special from the work that they do ... and I think what happened in that situation is that the team focused on trying to solve the issue and was really not thinking necessarily with communicating with DCP at that point. The focus was, 'how do we make sure we solve it?'"

During the forum, State Representative Alphonse Paolillo asked Suarez how these types of issues affect public perceptions, partnerships, sales, and overall integrity of the Lottery.

"Perception does become reality sometimes," Paolillo suggested.

Suarez started off his response by illustrating the complexity of a task such as a lottery system change.

"Anytime you change a gaming system vendor, like a true gaming system change, [it's] not just an enhancement to the next version," Suarez conveyed. "All the equipment changed, all the retailers got new terminals, all the vending machines changed, all the systems changed. It's highly complex. If you think about every lottery, every state has its own regulations, it has its own type of games that it does, so there's no one system that you can just plop into one place ... It really requires customization because we all have different regulations. It's a very, highly complex task to do."

The CEO then described the testing procedures, which involve trying to check every possible scenario that can come up in a transaction. The error the Lottery identified on June 9, 2023, he said, was based on sequences you typically wouldn't test for and are not easy to replicate in a testing environment.

"That can happen sometimes no matter how much testing you do," Suarez explained. "You can miss some things that are very unique. It's not to say that there weren't some things that may have been missed in terms of the way some things were configured. If you ask anyone who has been through a conversion, you expect something to go wrong. You always do. It's just the nature of the beast with software. You just hope that it's nothing major and you try to test and reduce the risk of anything big going on there. I think some of those glitches made it through because they were unique — some because of error in the configuration."

"It is tough because we live and die by our integrity, and we want to make sure that players and retailers feel very comfortable with the system," Suarez continued. "But I think we're feeling very good now. As we identify those unique cases, we now test for those kinds of things, and we've added unique situations to the testing cycle to make sure that we're doing some things differently than the standard."

"So the public can feel assured that these glitches are worked out?" Paolillo asked.

"Yes," Suarez replied.

Lastly, Paolillo brought up the delay in communication that had occurred between CLC and DCP and inquired about the resolution between the two agencies that hopefully ensures a continued compliance relationship.

"Just know for sure that it's not because the team did not want to communicate with DCP," Suarez emphasized. "We have nothing to hide. Transparency is very important for us, and again, it just was one of those mistakes that happened ... It wasn't from lack of desire or any sort of ill intent."

For those who are still unconvinced about the Lottery's true intentions, take a look at another software issue that occurred on July 31, 2023: an error with the IGT's original setup of the system in May 2023 that the Lottery handled in a timely manner.

Again, it was the result of another set of unique circumstances in ticket checking that would have been difficult to find during testing, Mongillo told Lottery Post. It occurred when retailer employees incorrectly keyed in tickets at the terminal, after which it gave an inaccurate reading.

"If you were a winner, it said you were a non-winner. If you were a non-winner, it said you were a winner," Mongillo said.

The Lottery was made aware of the issue as it arose, and it was immediately reported to the DCP. They also released notices to the general public and advised players to report problems they encounter, In total, it affected sixteen tickets, all of which have successfully been paid out.

It doesn't seem like the CLC will be getting a reprieve anytime soon. While some lawmakers are optimistic about pushing the Lottery in a positive direction given its new leadership, they remain skeptical.

"We came away with a lot more questions than answers," Representative David Rutigliano said in January. "We did appreciate that they showed up, but we think we're going to have a little more robust questioning when we have a public hearing."

"I think there's an opportunity for us to delve into some of the concerns that legislatures have had with the operations, the nature of games, the financing and the return to the state that we've been expecting," State Representative Roland Lemar added. "There's an opportunity he's [Suarez] got now as a new head of the corporation to come in and really expose the shortcomings that we've known about for years. We have an opportunity to right the ship and I hope they take advantage of this opportunity."

Hindsight is 20/20

When looking at a mistake in hindsight, it is productive to highlight where things went wrong and how things could improve. For example, the Lottery has expanded the scenarios it includes in its testing cycles so that certain unique errors no longer occur. New regulations have changed to specify reporting timelines and who is directly responsible for reporting problems to eliminate lapses in communication and therefore mitigate potential lost winnings on the player end.

At the same time, there are misconceptions that the Lottery is saddled with that have been unfair and frankly untrue. It's an unsuccessful scenario that a glitchy system launch prevented players from rightfully receiving prize money they were entitled to, which resulted in a jeopardization of the Lottery's integrity before state legislation and the public eye — it's a lose-lose situation for all parties involved.

What is not acceptable, whether it be intentional or ignorant, is leaving out key facts and warping context to fit an unflattering, scandalizing narrative of an organization that has consistently welcomed transparent dialogue and criticism.

That, and Connecticut is one of the shrinking number of states to utilize real mechanical ball drawings, which is a huge plus.