sgolson@trilobyte.com
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2017 12:40:26 -0500
http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article191818114.html
Excitement and joy turned to anger and frustration Wednesday as dozens of
people expecting to collect lottery winnings instead left the South Carolina
Education Lottery offices empty handed.
State lottery officials say a *programming error* with the lottery's
computer vendor, Intralot, affected the Holiday Cash Add-A-Play tickets on
Christmas Day.
From 5:51 p.m. to 7:53 p.m. Monday, the same play symbol was repeated in all
nine available play areas on tickets, which would result in a top prize of
$500, officials have said. No more than five identical play symbols should
appear for a single play.
There was no word Wednesday on how many winning tickets were generated, or
whether those with winning tickets would collect any prize money. The South
Carolina Education Lottery is telling players who purchased Add-A-Play
tickets on Christmas Day during the affected time period to hold on to their
tickets until a review is completed.
I wonder how many programming errors have lead to *fewer* than expected
winning tickets? Who would notice?
And it's rather ironic that this is the Education Lottery!