A computer system outage prevented Wisconsin lottery players from purchasing tickets or validating winning tickets for such games as Powerball or Pick 3 for about three hours, a state Department of Revenue spokeswoman says.

Ticket sales and prize validations for computerized games were affected when the outage occurred Monday about 11:30 a.m. at GTECH, which provides the Wisconsin Lottery with hardware and software for lottery sales, Meredith Helgerson said.

A battery backup system failed to kick in, Helgerson said, but the main system was eventually restored.

Sales of instant games such as scratch-off tickets were not affected, she said.