Lottery operator Camelot has pulled its National Lottery app in the UK after players reported the app incorrectly verifying draw results.
Earlier this week, reports emerged on social media that lottery players who used Camelot’s app to check their tickets were being told the tickets were losers when they were actually winners. Some players reported telling Camelot about the problem as early as last week.
On Friday, Camelot posted a message to the National Lottery website saying it was “currently working through a reported technical issue” that its app was displaying “an incorrect non–winning message when checking results with either the QR ticket scanner or manual–entry results checker.”
Camelot said it believes the problem is a very recent one, likely inspired by the latest software releases: October 13 for Android and October 20 for iOS. Camelot said the app was temporarily locked on October 26 and urged players to check tickets via the website or at a lottery retailer.
But many players are expressing outrage that they may have unwittingly thrown out tickets that may have been winners based on the info Camelot’s app provided. Camelot says anyone who fears missing out on a payday needs to contact them by 5pm on the 30th day after the draw for which their ticket was valid.
Players need to contact Camelot in writing and provide info regarding where and when they purchased the ticket, the number of tickets bought and the numbers played, along with “what you think has happened to the ticket.”
In July, the UK Gambling Commission fined Camelot £300k after the Lottery’s website displayed incorrect winning numbers for a Lotto Millionaire Raffle result. In 2014, the UKGC fined Camelot £100k for telling three jackpot winners they’d each receive £2m only to later admit it had miscalculated and each payday was worth only £1.6m.
