HUNDREDS OF NATIONAL Lottery players may have missed out on prizes in 2022 after a website fault wrongly told them their tickets were not winners.

The incident is one of a series of breaches that has led to sanctions against the lottery’s operator, Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI).

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers confirmed in a parliamentary question posed by Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly that during a six-week period in 2022, the “Check My Numbers” feature went live before lotto draw results had been fully verified.

This meant some players who had entered winning numbers were incorrectly informed their tickets had not won.

The regulator later concluded that up to 394 prizes, worth a total of €2,299, may have gone unclaimed, including one prize of €250.

Although the sums involved were modest, PLI was fined €23,000 and required to commission an independent review of all prize-checking systems.

The company said it had received no complaints from players but paid an equivalent sum into a top-up prize fund and installed a permanent fix to prevent any recurrence.

In a separate breach in 2021, 126 players who had permanently self-excluded from the lottery were mistakenly allowed to reopen accounts after their records were deleted by an automated system designed to comply with data protection rules.

Out of the 126 players, sixteen individuals opened new accounts, with 10 spending a combined €3,292 on tickets and four receiving marketing emails.

That incident resulted in a far heavier penalty, with €150,000 withheld from PLI.

The regulator also issued a statutory direction enhancing self-exclusion controls and strengthening its powers to seek future financial sanctions through the courts.

Since the current licence to operate the National Lottery was awarded in 2014, the regulator has recorded 10 breaches by PLI.

These have ranged from marketing failures and spending-limit glitches to a 2020 case in which €180,000 in scratch card top prizes were accidentally omitted from three games, prompting a regulator-ordered special draw and a €50,000 charity donation.

Chambers stressed that penalties are designed to protect the integrity of the lottery and safeguard players, with withheld funds redirected to the Exchequer for good causes.

“The National Lottery must operate to the highest standards of integrity and player protection,” he said.