Oops! ‘Everyone’ is a winner in Hoosier Lottery fast play game
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — More than 24 hours after the Hoosier Lottery acknowledged “an issue” with an instant-win game that started Sunday, the state agency publicly shared what it’s doing about the problem.
“We are experiencing an issue with the $20 Golden Jackpot Fast Play game. If you have purchased this ticket, please hold on to your ticket. We will share more information on http://HoosierLottery.com when available,” said a social media post sent about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
A person who posted on the tweet said, “Is there a glitch from the new $20 fast play game? Everyone matching 3 numbers and winning $5000 but when they scan ticket it says not a winner.”
That’s exactly what the Hoosier Lottery said happened in a news release about 5:15 p.m. Monday. “The morning of the launch, players began contacting the player hotline (1-800-955-6886) indicating they purchased $20 Golden Jackpot Fast Play tickets that they believed to be winners, but the tickets were not scanning as winners when the player attempted to validate the prize. The callers stated in general that they matched all 3 numbers in one game as outlined in the ‘How to Win’ section of the ticket and therefore believed that their ticket should be a winner.”
Sales of the tickets stopped at noon Sunday, after 632 tickets were sold, and purchasers were “perceiving a winning ticket that could not be validated as a winning ticket through the mobile app or at retail.”
The Hoosier Lottery says it’s working with its vendor to figure out what went wrong. Players were told to hold onto their tickets until the investigation is done. “We are committed to having a process for players who were impacted by the issue with the Fast Play $20 Golden Jackpot ticket,” the release said. “The Hoosier Lottery strives to provide fun an entertaining experience for our players. We are working with our gaming system provider to determine what caused the issue and will work as quickly as possible to address the situation.”
The “issue” comes as the Hoosier Lottery is wanting to start online games and ticket sales. Gov. Eric Holcomb has pointed to the interest among lottery players to online options and how those could boost lottery revenue. State lottery officials have been discussing since 2019 the possibility of joining other states in selling lottery tickets and offering other games online.