DC Lottery to payout $127K for reporting wrong winning numbers

Jan 11, 2019, 8:07 pm (4 comments)

Washington, D.C. Lottery

The D.C. Lottery says it is paying out tens of thousands of dollars to people who have losing tickets after the lottery reported the wrong winning numbers due to "human error."

The mistake is limited to the evening drawings of the DC-2, DC-3, DC-4 and DC-5 games on Dec. 12, 2018.

According to data provided by D.C. Lottery, 773 losing tickets were designated as winning because of the error. The total winnings for those tickets is $127,505. As of Tuesday, 443 of the tickets had been redeemed so far for a payout of $77,147.50.

About 2 percent of all winning tickets go unclaimed, according to D.C. Lottery.

People who have tickets for the Dec. 12 drawing have until June 10, 2019 to cash them in. The tickets awarded in error can only be redeemed at DC Lottery Prize Center at 2235 Shannon Place SE.

Once the mistake was discovered, lottery officials announced the correct set of winning numbers and decided to pay out both the actual winning numbers as well as the numbers that were announced by mistake.

"New software was installed to our draw system by our vendor to ensure this error cannot reoccur. DC Lottery has reviewed and updated policies and procedures as needed," Agnes Moss, a spokesperson for the D.C. lottery, said in an email.

Moss said this type of mistake has never occurred in the past and was the result of "human error by DC Lottery staff."

The mistake comes as the lottery and its vendor, Intralot, are at the center of a debate over what company should get the multi-million dollar contract to operate the District's online sports betting system.

The D.C. Council was set to vote on emergency legislation that would have pushed the contract to Intralot circumventing an open bidding process.

The Chairman of the D.C. Council withdrew that legislation at the last minute and will now hold a public hearing later this month to determine how to award the sports betting contract.

As of Jan. 8, the payout for the winning tickets issued in error are as follows:

DC 2 - 5 of 25 winning plays claimed for $137.50
DC 3 - 417 of 682 winning plays claimed for $73,310
DC 4 - 13 of 38 winning plays claimed for $3,700
DC 5 - 0 of 15 winning plays claimed for $0.00
Total: 435 of 773 winning plays claimed for $77,147.50

Both sets of numbers that will be paid out for the Dec. 12 drawing:

Actual Winning Tickets

Players with tickets bearing the following set of numbers can bring them to any DC Lottery retailer for validation:

DC 2: 25
DC 3: 410
DC 4: 8937
DC 5: 09353

Mistakenly Awarded Tickets

Players with tickets bearing the following set of numbers can bring them to the DC Lottery Prize Center at 2235 Shannon Place SE, for validation:

DC 2: 32
DC 3: 518
DC 4: 7508
DC 5: 57581

Winning numbers on Lottery Post

Visitors to Lottery Post's Washington, D.C. Lottery Results page on Dec. 12 would have seen the originally-reported (i.e., wrong) lottery results reported at the time the DC Lottery published them, but then would have seen the numbers self-correct once the correct numbers were re-published by the lottery.  Viewing the Dec. 12 winning numbers now shows both sets of winning numbers, with the wrong results labeled as such.

Lottery Post members who posted predictions on the Lottery Predictions page received credit for numbers matching the correct winning numbers — but not for the wrong winning numbers.  Members can check their results on the Dec. 12 Washington, D.C. Prediction Winners page.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Hyperlink to the Washington, DC 12/12/2018 Results:

https://www.lotterypost.com/results/dc/2018/12/12

music*'s avatarmusic*

"To err is human, to forgive divine."  These things happen.

Bleudog101

For such a small lottery, they sure have some integrity.  Other states as LP members can attest to just simply shrugged their shoulders and that was it.

Go for IGT for your Sports Betting.

Artist77's avatarArtist77

These drawings are on tv here so they showed the correct numbers then but the wrong numbers went up on the lottery website? 

I always buy my PB and mm tickets in DC. Their rules, like New Hampshire, are silent on whether other entities can claim vs an individual only.

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