Games company Francaise des Jeux said it would compensate a handful of people who mistakenly thought they had won the jackpot because of printing errors on a batch of black jack scratch cards.

Eight people in the Lorraine region of eastern France will be awarded between 2,000 and 40,000 euros for having had their dreams of wealth raised and dashed.

The company devised a way to calculate how much distress the players had suffered linked to the amount they thought they had won and how long they were under the illusion.

The misunderstandings arose because one digit was missing on each defective scratch card.

Francaise des Jeux initially refused to pay the distraught players anything, but a lawyer hired by the victims ordered the firm to pay compensation or end up in court.