No 'holiday surprise' for New Jersey lottery players (computer glitch)greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/Dec/02/sj/JLOTT02.htm
No 'Holiday Surprise' for New Jersey lottery players.
Glitch forces state to scratch instant game
New Jersey's "Holiday Surprise" Instant Lottery game was canceled yesterday and its 10.8 million tickets invalidated because of what lottery officials called a computer programming error.
The scratch-and-win tickets contain an error that prevented lottery-ticket agents statewide from activating them for sale using a special scanning device in their stores. The scanning device also failed to validate any tickets that appear to be winners, lottery officials said.
"When we learned of this problem, we immediately suspended sales" Monday evening, said Virginia E. Haines, the lottery's executive director, adding that the problem was detected Monday. Despite the cancellation, some tickets were sold yesterday. The lottery said that it would honor any winning tickets but that owners would have to send the ticket, along with a claim form available from the ticket agents, to lottery headquarters in Trenton.
-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 02, 1999
The fang'ster strikes again! I suwannee, bo; you must have 4 heads, 8 eyes, and four seperate 'puters on four seperate ISDN lines!! Go, cat, go!
-- Jay Urban (Jayho99@aol.com), December 02, 1999.
BeeeeaaaaanFaaaaaang!
-- PD (PaulDMaher@att.worldnet.com), December 02, 1999.