National lottery players ‘could have binned winning tickets after phone app glitch’
Punters have now flooded social media, complaining they could have missed their chance at becoming a millionaire
THE winner of a National Lottery jackpot could have binned their golden ticket after a computer glitch told punters were told their tickets were losers.
The technical fault meant that the winning stubs might have been thrown away by a punter who had actually hit the big time.
The glitch was caused by the lotto app, with punters who entered their numbers met with a message saying their tickets were unsuccessful - even if the numbers were in fact winners.
National Lottery has now posted a statement on their website, apologising for the glitch.
In the statement, the organisation said that people may be been given "an incorrect non-winning message".
It said: "We're sorry the National Lottery apps are currently unavailable.
"Some players may have recently seen an incorrect non-winning message caused by a technical issue with both the QR scanner and manual-entry results checker on the apps.
"We are still investigating this issue and we will update our messaging as soon as possible."
In a further statement to Sun Online Camelot, the operator of National Lottery, confirmed there had been a glitch.
It said: "We can confirm that we are currently working through a reported technical issue with the National Lottery app whereby some users may have recently seen an incorrect non-winning message when checking results with either the QR scanner or manual-entry results checker.
"We believe that the vast majority of app users would have been unaffected."
It added: "Our current understanding is that the issue reported is linked to a recent software release, which was implemented on 13 October for Android users and on 20 October for iOS (Apple) users.
"We believe that this would have only affected a very small minority of users who checked results using the app during this period under a very specific set of circumstances – including attempting to open the app in offline mode after receiving an error message to this effect."
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The app has been blocked temporarily.
Hopeful punters now have 30 days since their lotto numbers announced to claim a potential win.
Punters have now flooded social media, concerned they could have hit the jackpot - but are now toiling away in their jobs when they are actually millionaires.
One punter wrote: "I threw all mine away as you told me it lost!!! And course I'm concerned I threw a winner away and have to continue going to work!!"
Another wrote that the organisation owed them "1 million £££" after the glitch.
Another punter whose hopes had been dashed said the issue was "a joke".
Other devastated punters said: "Love buying tickets & throwing them away after being told by the app the numbers are wrong when they could have been right, NICE ONE".
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