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Computer Says No
Lotto cancelled until tomorrow after lottery machines go on the blink
Don’t worry, if you have a ticket, it’s still valid.
10.56pm, 4 Feb 2015
118k
129
Mac Innes Photography
Mac Innes Photography
TONIGHT’S LOTTO JACKPOT may be €10 million but National Lottery machines around the country aren’t keen on it being won – they’ve been out of commission since this morning.
The National Lottery has now confirmed that tonight’s draw has been cancelled.
In a statement, it said:
The National Lottery can confirm that there were technical problems this morning following a service outage related to the 3G telecommunications infrastructure provided by Telefónica. This incident affected business customers across Ireland and Europe including over 3,500 National Lottery agents. We are continuing work to re-establish the connection between the agent terminals and the network.To ensure all our players have an opportunity to play for the €10 million Lotto jackpot, the Lotto draw will now take place on Thursday 5 February 2015. Tickets already purchased for the midweek draw remain valid for this draw.
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It thanked players and agents for their patience.
So it seems #Lotto is not working anywhere at the moment 😢 that €10 million is suppose to be mine
“It’s a telecommunications problem,” Lotto spokesperson Nuala Kane told TheJournal.ie earlier today.
The machines have been down nationwide since 9.06 this morning. The core issues have been resolved so we expect the machines to be back up and running later this afternoon.
A subsequent Lottery statement confirmed that a ‘network incident’ had nobbled lottery agents across Europe today.
Service has now been restored and National Lottery agent terminals are in the process of re-establishing their connection to the network.
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Something stinks not just about this latest glich with the new lotto owners but Jackpot winnings in general since the takeover. I don’t revcall any additional sums added to the jackpot during bank holidays for example, call me cynical but there is something array since the license was sold.
Theres been problems with the new terminals from day one, and trying to get winning scratch cards scanned is basically pot luck, depending on what outlet you go too. Interesting not a mention of the outage on the lotto website which also bizzarely is not listing winning numbers beyond the past few draws, apparently part of their systems upgrade an upgrade that appears to be going on for over two months now.
Don’t even mention the issues with app and online playing. They must have spent fortune advertising the face that you could play on phone up a mountain only for their system to fail for months afterwards. App still worse than it ever was.
It has gone to hell since change. The on line is even clunky and slow. And don’t get me started on that new show millionaire challenge or whatever. It’s so long winded and boring. Nicky says ‘code’ ten thousand times each show. Didn’t really play scratch cards but defo not now. They slashed the prize money the game show pays out too. I know people who work in two shops and they told me sales have plummeted in the shop. Serves them right the greedy #**##.
Yes I fully agree joseph I said the same thing few weeks back regarding the lotto programme on Saturday evening that replaced winning streak thought they were losing money or something prizes for contestants are way smaller than what they used to be…..then they say its not fixed….hmmm
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Play online. No need to check tickets after, they email you if you’ve won something.
Although waking up to an email with the subject line: “We have some exciting news for you about last night’s lotto draw” only to find you’ve won €2 is a pain in the proverbial.
Forgive my cynicism but isn’t Valentines Day on a Saturday this year ? There appears to be a tendency ( totally accidental of course ), for jackpots to accumulate coming up to Public holidays or ‘special’ days.
Thank you for the enlightenment. I stand by my comment regarding the sale of Irish assets to british (and other nations) companies. Bord Gais, electricity, natural resources have all been flogged off for a lousy handful of beans.
Whatever about the others, this one seems innocuous enough. We got several hundred million euro, an post got to keep part of the contract, our charities keep getting funding and after the contract ends, we get the company back so we can sell it all over again.
The system has been nothing but problems since that Canadian cried took it over, the machines are constantly giving trouble. It’s Irish lotto, why do we have Canada looking after it?
its all a sham anyway, they know the winner by location, time, and if they wanted or had time to check cctv before the draw – even what they look like. the computer script finds how many combinations are not picked by closing time, then those balls are loaded with the magnets to fall through the pipe if they want the jackpot to carry over. if they want it won, give it to one combination or 2 or 3. the computer decides.
at no time was there ever 6-10 jackpot winners, this can and should have happened by now but the computer says no.
I do think it should have gone ahead, despite the disappointment of many who could not play. Now, it just feeds the Lotto the extra they need to keep the margin, as they expected it would had the machines worked. If they were forced to hold it tonight, €10m would still be the jackpot but they wouldn’t have had the €1.7-2m from today’s sales to bump it up to their greedy margin %…
theres no way in hell it ain’t fixed. this ain’t no analog bingo. i do play it mind but not very often nor am i paranoid Elias insulting queen, i am however quite smart.
Bloddy disaster. Not a regular player so dont really check my tickets often pain in the ass not being able to check back more than 8 draws on line or scan them at the shop. Plus all the profits are now leaving the country. Typical FG/Labour sell everything for a quick buck and come election blame someone else.
How it was allowed for Premier to take over the running of the Lotto when clearly they were not ready to do so dhould be questioned.
Months later and they still do not have the counter top scanners working.Tese were promised to the agents/shops to be in place for the first of January. Which Jan ??
Asking shop staff to check your ticket is not good enough. There has been some deceitful instances where this is concerned before.
God forbid they lose out on revenue! This draw should go ahead as normal it’s not the punters fault system crashed, there might be a slim chance of better odds for some lucky ticket holder
When will the muppets running the lottery bring in the self scanning terminals? Its way handier than waiting for old biddies to get the tickets out of their bag.
That isn’t a bad thing as people should rather spend their money on something more useful.
People should ask the guy behind the counter how many tickets have been sold prior to your purchase then you can deduce your odds of actually winning. (Dismal odds I’m afraid, do the maths folks)
Somebody is making a lot of money out of this farce and it isn’t you. lol
The number of people who have bought tickets before you won’t increase or decrease your chances of winning. You could be the only person with a ticket and you still have the same odds.
I understand what you are saying but do the maths.
There can only be one winner = 1
For example sake a total of 500.000 people play the lottery
1/500,000 x 100 = 0.00002%
Not a great chance of winning anytime soon but what do you think?
John,you can’t be guaranteed of winning the Lotto if you are the only person doing it. I sell lotto tickets every day and it’s pot luck. If anything, I wouldn’t play Quick Pick because IF the National Lottery ever wanted a rollover,the winning numbers wouldn’t be given to someone. Not saying that happens but there are a lot of rollovers on holidays.
@wheelwright Why so you take the effort to post a lengthy submission on how the lotto odds work when you are obviously only guessing? I know you are guessing because you are wrong on how the odds of winning the lotto work.
So if I can’t do the lotto next week will they postpone it for me ?.
Since those Turks took over them machines it’s gone to feck… I see the journal headlines next week. One winner in Istanbul……….
Do you play online in your state? I subscribe online to the New York Lottery. I get an email if I win a prize. All small prizes are credited to my lottery account. I have only won small prizes, so far. Maybe be one day my ship will come in. If you’re not in you can’t win!
If only you would read the article before trying to be a smart shite.. it states the tickets already bought are still valid but it doesn’t say whether or not tickets bought tomorrow will be valid for that draw or the Saturday draw.
Next time correctly read the article and comment before trying to be clever.
Seems there’s some indication that the draw is rigged, because the frequency of jackpots seems to diminish before big weekends. Has anybody tested that hypothesis, maybe by analysing the exact timing of the balls? Or are we citizens of RoI (rip-off Ireland) just too gullible and too placid to assert our rights?
Silly question but how exactly do you win the Irish lotto. I assume it’s match your 6 numbers and the bonus ball but how come I only have 6 numbers on my quick pick ticket and no bonus ball number? Anyone want to fill me in.
All 6 is the jackpot, 5 plus bonus ball comes next then match 5 etc. Bonus ball is drawn it doesn’t appear as an option on the ticket, it’s not like euro millions.
So if I can’t do the lotto next week will they postpone it for me ?.
Since those Turks took over them machines it’s gone to f@ck… I see the journal headlines next week. One winner in Istanbul……….
Camelot have been ripping off the Brits for years now. They paid Winston Churchill grandson ten million for a load of old tat he had stored in his attic, calling it a National Treasure.
They give far less to charity than was given in Ireland before they took over.
Not to worry, there are a number of other ways of maximising your spend that vastly outstrips the value of a lottery ticket. Buying a cup of tea for example, or just giving your money to someone who needs it more than you. Lotteries are a scam, preying on peoples wildly inaccurate ability to predict outcomes.
So what if a regular player ( who say has been living under a rock today ) and had already purchased a ticket for Wednesday and missed all this; goes to a newsagent tomorrow, hands in his slip with usual numbers and leaves with a second ticket for the same draw while all the time thinking he’s in Saturday’s draw.
The new terminal didn’t do me any favours where I worked. Constantly dropping out of the network which meant you’d be printing a ticket for a customer and the machine would just freeze and take 5 minutes to restart. As well as the new tickets not wanting to scan even though the books were activated.
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