New Computers Causing Problems For South Carolina Lottery

A new computer system at South Carolina Education Lottery retailers had glitches that caused it to misread some winning tickets as losers, frustrating players. The lottery switched over to the new system November 5 after two years of planning.

The new system is linked by satellite, while the old system used phone lines. The new system also allows tickets to be sold 24 hours a day.

Switching to the new computers required data from about 7 million instant tickets to be entered by hand into the new system. South Carolina Education Lottery director Ernie Passailaigue says, "In programming some of that, certain packs of tickets were programmed incorrectly. And what showed up, when we flipped the switch on, what showed up was there were certain tickets that said that the ticket was not a winner. In actuality, it was a winner."

He says the winners were paid and the system has been fixed. Besides scratch-off instant tickets, some games like Pick 3, Pick 4 and Palmetto Cash 5 were also affected, but he doesn't know how many tickets were involved. He does not think any losing tickets were paid out as winners.

Lottery retailer Lillian McBride says she's had some customers who brought in winning tickets to cash them in, only to have the system say the tickets weren't winners. "I know the customers, they're panicking because they think they're not going to get their money," she says. "But I tell them if they have a ticket that's winning, just hold onto the ticket for a few days. The machines are new, they're changing things every day, so, you know, just give it awhile."

Passailaigue says if someone has a winning ticket that's not registering as a winner in the new system, "They should either go to a lottery claims office, or get a claim form from their retailer and mail it in, and we will review it and make sure that that is investigated and properly paid if it is a winner that hasn't been paid before."

He says with a changeover as massive as this, he did expect some problems. The switch involved 16,000 pieces of new equipment for retailers and 2,700 miles of test paper. The change required 2.3 million lines of computer code to be written.

But there is a major upside to the new system. The new contract will save the state $12 million over the 10-year life of the contract. Passailaigue says that money will provide LIFE scholarships for an additional 2,300 students.

The South Carolina Education Lottery's website is here.