CT Lottery holds do-over raffle drawing

Jan 16, 2018, 1:34 pm (8 comments)

Connecticut Lottery

Million-dollar winner is one of the tickets excluded from the first drawing

16 tickets won prizes in both drawings

The Connecticut Lottery Corp. held a do-over drawing Tuesday morning to partially correct a $1.375 million blunder that happened Jan. 1, when nearly half of the eligible tickets in the New Year's Million-Dollar Super Draw game — 100,000 out of the 214,601 sold at $10 each — were excluded from the drawing.

The electronic drawing was conducted without apparent problems by a team of five people using a random number generator machine at lottery headquarters at 777 Brook St. in Rocky Hill.

"No anomalies were noted," a member of the drawing team said repeatedly at each step of the drawing procedure over a period of just under an hour.

Final certification of the results were submitted to Scientific Games, the lottery's vendor, at a separate lottery office two miles away in Rocky Hill.

The winning ticket numbers, which were released to the public at approximately 1:20 pm Eastern Time, are published on Lottery Post's Connecticut Lottery Results page.

The winner of the top $1 million prize was number 293148, which was one of the 100,000 ticket numbers excluded from the flawed Jan. 1 drawing.

All ticket numbers were included in the do-over drawing and eligible to win a prize — even if they won a prize in the first drawing.

In addition to the $1 million top prize there are 10 winners of $20,000, 50 winners of $1,000, and 1,250 winning tickets worth $100 each.

Of all the numbers drawn on both days, a total of 16 tickets won prizes in both drawings. The lucky 16 dual-winning numbers are: 106303, 106462, 114425, 126118, 136021, 142363, 158130, 158974, 167945, 167988, 168320, 203773, 205292, 208117, 208372, 209523.

Of the numbers that won prizes in both drawings, only one — number 168320 — won a $1,000 prize and a $100 prize. All 15 others won two $100 prizes.

Tuesday's drawing will result in a second prize payout of $1.375 million in the Super Draw game, because the lottery agency says it will pay the winners in the first, flawed drawing — for which winning ticket numbers were posted publicly before officials realized their mistake. That means the lottery will lose money on the game for which ticket sales totaled $2.14 million. Unclaimed prize money is to be used to make up the difference.

The do-over drawing was held as two state investigations are already underway into how the error occurred on New Year's Day, and the lack of any problems Tuesday is still unlikely to satisfy many of the holders of the 100,000 tickets who were shut out of a chance in the Jan. 1 drawing.

Many players are unhappy that the makeup drawing included all 214,601 tickets, not just the 100,000 excluded Jan. 1, because that meant that the 114,601 entered in the Jan. 1 drawing got a second chance to win — while the other 100,000 got only this one shot.

The lottery's interim CEO/president, Chelsea Turner, said there's no way to fix the problem perfectly, and that lottery regulations require that all tickets sold be included in a drawing. To not include all 214,601 in the second drawing would violate those regulations all over again and compound the initial error, she said.

Some lottery players have offered what they believe would be fairer solutions. For example, one said that the second drawing, or even a third one after Tuesday's, should include the 100,000 tickets excluded Jan. 1 plus another 14,601 consecutive ticket numbers above them (which went unsold). That would make the odds identical to the Jan. 1 drawing, and if any of the unsold tickets come up as winners, the prizes could go to charity, the player said.

Tuesday's drawing, just like the one on New Year's Day, was run by a team of five people — two of them employees of the lottery, two from the state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP), which regulates the lottery agency, and one from the lottery's independent auditing firm, Marcum LLP.

The five people on Tuesday's team were different from those who ran the Jan. 1 drawing. Both the lottery agency and DCP are conducting separate investigations into how the Jan. 1 blunder happened and who is responsible. Two lottery employees have been placed on paid administrative leaves, while the two DCP employees from Jan. 1 have been taking off drawing assignments while the department investigates its part in the snafu.

Lottery officials will not say if they'll pursue Marcum, a major national accounting firm with four Connecticut offices, for any financial responsibility in the Jan. 1 blunder.

Here's what's known so far about that mistake, according to DCP's communications director, Lora Rae Anderson:

Incorrect numbers were entered into the random number generator machine by a lottery employee on the team, despite a step-by-step, illustrated instruction manual emphasizing that ticket numbers went upward from a low of 100001 — so the second ticket would be 100002, the third 100003, and so on. With, 214,601 tickets sold, the range of eligible tickets should have been 100001 at the low end, and 314,601 at the top. But the lottery employee instead entered 214601 as the top number, omitting the 100,000 tickets numbered from 214602 through 314601.

The mistake in the number entries was missed by a DCP employee and Marcum's representative, who were supposed to observe whether things were done properly, Anderson has said.

Meanwhile, DCP's investigation has already run into conflicting stories about what happened Jan. 1. "The Department has begun conducting interviews with parties involved in the Super Draw drawing that occurred on Monday, January 1st, 2018. At this time, there are conflicting accounts of that day's events," Anderson said in an email last week.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Joe Verrengia, D-West Hartford, says that he may seek another round of investigative hearings into lottery operations, similar to two hearings he convened last May in his role as co-chairman of the General Assembly's public safety committee.

Another effect of the current problem is another delay, for now and perhaps for weeks, in the hiring of a permanent CEO to replace Anne Noble, who stepped down in September 2016 during the DCP's investigation of the 5 Card Cash fraud scheme. Noble stayed on until mid-2017 under a lucrative severance/consulting package, and Turner, her longtime subordinate, has been acting CEO since then. Turner is believed to be one of four current finalists being considered by the lottery's board of directors. The other three are from out of state.

Lottery Post Staff, Hartford Courant

Comments

Genome

I purchased 8 tickets total. Won $100 on the first draw and $200 on this second draw. I wish I could have won more but it was fun. Ill definitely play again buying more tickets if they do the July 4th Super Draw.

GiveFive's avatarGiveFive

Two drawings and ZIP!!  What's a guy gotta do to win this thing???? G5

GiveFive's avatarGiveFive

So here's the million dollar question:  Did the person who won the top prize of $1,000,000 in the second drawing throw their ticket away because they checked it on January 1st and were told it did not win???

Lord I hope not, but it might have happened. G5

Genome

That would be nuts if that did happen. Hopefully that 2nd 1 million winner kept their ticket. Do you know if they had a 4th of July Super Draw last year? I hope they have one this year so I can use my wins to buy more tickets before they expire. In CT, you have 180 days before your ticket expires.

GiveFive's avatarGiveFive

Quote: Originally posted by Genome on Jan 16, 2018

That would be nuts if that did happen. Hopefully that 2nd 1 million winner kept their ticket. Do you know if they had a 4th of July Super Draw last year? I hope they have one this year so I can use my wins to buy more tickets before they expire. In CT, you have 180 days before your ticket expires.

To the best of my knowledge, there was no Super Draw Raffle in July of 2017.  If there was one, I didn't hear about it, because if I had, I'd have gotten in on it. 

More than that though, IMHO, due to the fiasco with this raffle, they've probably already decided that there will not be any more Super Draw raffles. G5

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 16, 2018

So here's the million dollar question:  Did the person who won the top prize of $1,000,000 in the second drawing throw their ticket away because they checked it on January 1st and were told it did not win???

Lord I hope not, but it might have happened. G5

They've got a procedure to file a claim for lost tickets.

In some cases they may be able to get video of the purchase, but how many places will still have the video from purchases that could have happened as early as October 1st? Some people will be able to say where they bought the tickets, but how long ago that was will be a  major factor again. Who's going to remember now whether they bought a ticket on October 25th or November 5th? Of course people who bought multiple tickets at the same time will probably know how many they bought. 

At least there were a relatively small number of tickets sold, and they probably won't get many false claims. A really quick Google search suggests that there may be as few as 3000 retailers in CT, which would mean average sales of 71 ticket each.  Factor in people buying two or more tickets and the time between sales goes up. At smaller retailers it's possible that only 1 or 2 tickets were sold in a week. The $1 million winner was (barely) among the final 10%, so that increases the chances that the winner will have a decent idea of when and where it was bought if they did toss it.

The other big question about how they'll deal with lost tickets is how long people will have to wait. They may make them wait until the claim period ends to make sure that nobody else tries to claim a prize from that ticket. If the $1 million winner does turn out to be in that situation I wonder if they'll be offering the $15 to $25 grand interest that the person might have earned.

 

"All ticket numbers were included in the do-over drawing and eligible to win a prize — even if they won a prize in the first drawing.

Their regulations may require including all tickets, but I'm still glad I'm not one of the people who will have to try to justify that decision in any lawsuits. The failure to have the ability to make exceptions in extraordinary circumstances is just another instance of management failure.

TheMeatman2005's avatarTheMeatman2005

Someone who purchased tickets for the drawing and won a prize in the Jan 1 drawing might not have their tickets either. 

Usually when you cash in a winning ticket, you go to a lottery retailer and present the ticket to the clerk. They take the ticket and scan it. It says, "CONGRATULATIONS" and you get your cash.

The clerk doesn't usually give you back the lottery ticket after it's been cashed. It goes into the trash can.

How would you know if you won another prize in the second drawing? It was a raffle and not picked numbers. How would you know what numbers were on your ticket?

GiveFive's avatarGiveFive

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Jan 17, 2018

They've got a procedure to file a claim for lost tickets.

In some cases they may be able to get video of the purchase, but how many places will still have the video from purchases that could have happened as early as October 1st? Some people will be able to say where they bought the tickets, but how long ago that was will be a  major factor again. Who's going to remember now whether they bought a ticket on October 25th or November 5th? Of course people who bought multiple tickets at the same time will probably know how many they bought. 

At least there were a relatively small number of tickets sold, and they probably won't get many false claims. A really quick Google search suggests that there may be as few as 3000 retailers in CT, which would mean average sales of 71 ticket each.  Factor in people buying two or more tickets and the time between sales goes up. At smaller retailers it's possible that only 1 or 2 tickets were sold in a week. The $1 million winner was (barely) among the final 10%, so that increases the chances that the winner will have a decent idea of when and where it was bought if they did toss it.

The other big question about how they'll deal with lost tickets is how long people will have to wait. They may make them wait until the claim period ends to make sure that nobody else tries to claim a prize from that ticket. If the $1 million winner does turn out to be in that situation I wonder if they'll be offering the $15 to $25 grand interest that the person might have earned.

 

"All ticket numbers were included in the do-over drawing and eligible to win a prize — even if they won a prize in the first drawing.

Their regulations may require including all tickets, but I'm still glad I'm not one of the people who will have to try to justify that decision in any lawsuits. The failure to have the ability to make exceptions in extraordinary circumstances is just another instance of management failure.

Regarding the procedure to file a claim for a lost (trashed) ticket(s), does anyone know what info has to be provided on the form?

If they want the date you bought it, the location where you bought it, and the six digit number(s) on the ticket(s), then I'd say you're toast as far as getting a refund goes.

I know the date I bought mine (all 3 were losers in both draws) and I know where I bought them.  But if I had to tell them the six digit numbers on all three of them??? FUHGEDABOWDIT!!

There is hope that the second top prize winner will get their money. If the number is in the last 10 percent of tickets sold, then it was probably sold on Dec 30th or 31st.  Ticket sales usually spike up during the last few days prior to the drawing. There's a mad rush to buy tickets due to the closeness of the drawing date.   G5

End of comments
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