National Lottery apologises for scratchcard error

It emerged today that the lottery continued to sell one of the affected cards for six weeks after learning of the mistake and only withdrew it from retailers after instructed to do so by the Lotto regulator.

The issue has led to calls for both the operator and regulator to appear before an Oireachtas committee to explain the omission.

However, while the Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery says it will now investigate if the error amounts to a breach of the National Lottery Act or licence, it has refused to say whether it could have detected the mistake itself without being told by the operator.

Premier Lotteries Ireland today said the omissions “were discovered through an internal review of all National Lottery products over the last six weeks”, after which it “promptly notified” the regulator. The Irish Examiner subsequently asked the regulator if its office has a role in ensuring the correct number of prizes are given out.

The regulator was also asked if it has its own system whereby it could have independently discovered this mistake, or if it is reliant on the operator’s internal investigations.

“As the regulator has commenced a formal process, as prescribed in the licence, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time,” a spokesperson said.

The National Lottery has moved to reassure customers the mistakes were down to human error and that it is taking measures to ensure such omissions do recur. National Lottery CEO Andrew Algeo, said: “We are deeply sorry for these errors which should have been fixed before the games went on sale. We are committed to ensuring that our players are always treated fairly.

“New controls are now in place to ensure this does not happen again. We would like to reassure our players by pointing out that the total amount involved is less than 0.01% of all our prizes of the last five years.”

Carol Boate, regulator of the National Lottery, issued a statement in which she said her officials are examining what breaches of the act or licence may have occurred, and that she determined that the affected scratch card game still on sale should be withdrawn.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael Mc-Grath has suggested that Premier Lotteries Ireland and the regulator be invited to come before the Oireachtas Finance Committee to face questions on the issue.

“The revelation will undoubtedly damage public trust and confidence in the National Lottery,” he said. “Without the trust of the general public, the success of the National Lottery is far from guaranteed.

“The fact that these prizes were not on offer for the past five years raises very serious questions for the National Lottery.

“Given that Premier Lotteries Ireland says it learned of this issue six weeks ago, it is incredible they allowed these scratch cards to continue in circulation. It would appear the regulator did not make this discovery and they too have questions to answer to.

“The regulator needs to investigate how this issue did not surface until six weeks ago.”

Two of the cards affected are called ‘Congratulations’, while ‘Diamond Bingo Doubler’ is the third card affected by the mistake. The Diamond Bingo Doubler card, on sale until February 2017, should have had four €30,000 jackpots but only three were included.

The Congratulations cards, on sale until July of this year, should have had four top jackpot prizes of €50,000, but only two were available. A batch of the same Congratulations cards, on sale since April, only had one €50,000 prize when there should have been two. These tickets are now being withdrawn.