New National Lottery operator hit by further technical glitch

Another glitch hit the National Lottery this week after a customer in Carlow bought four Quick Pick tickets each of which contained exactly the same six numbers.

Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI), which took over the running of the national lottery last year, said the same numbers were issued on four separate tickets bought in the shop after a fault occurred with the machine's printer.

It said it was “an isolated incident” which it blamed on a sensor in the printer had been replaced.

It is just the latest in a long line of problems to hit the National Lottery since it changed hands last year.

In February, the Lotto was forced to defer a weekly jackpot draw for the first time in its 28-year history after technical problems crashed ticket terminals across the State.

Up to 3,500 terminals, or 95 per cent of its network, went out of commission for several hours as a result of n incident on February 3rd.

The Lotto’s new private operator blamed the problems on a service outage at its telecoms provider Telefónica.

In the wake of the crash and amid mounting complaints from retailers about the service, PLI was called before the Oireachtas finance committee in March.

Retailers told the same committee that PLI’s terminals were plagued with glitches and problems were damaging sales and undermining the Lottery.

Lottery regulator Liam Sloyan then demanded a report from PLI regarding the outages and is currently reviewing it with a view to making recommendations.