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still hope check your lotto tix
3/8/2007 at 11:42 AM
EDMONTON (CP) - The Western Canada Lottery Corp. has had another problem - this time with its Millionaire Life tickets.
The lottery corporation says the incidents affect tickets bought in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
The first incident involves players who checked their Millionaire Life tickets on self-service ticket checkers on March 1 between 6 a.m CST and 10:52 a.m.
The message that came out was "not a winner, check other draws later."
The message should have been "please try later," said John Matheson, lottery corporation spokesman.
Matheson said there are 397 winning tickets that have yet to be cashed and are mostly $2 prizes, but there are some $10, $20 and two $100 prizes remaining.
None of the outstanding tickets to be cashed are from Alberta, Yukon or Nunavut.
The second problem occurred as well on March 1 for tickets checked through ticket terminals. Players only received Extra prizes but also were entitled to prizes on the Millionaire Life numbers.
Matheson said if people still have their tickets, they should take it back to a retailer to be checked. If players don't have their tickets, they can call the lottery corporation's toll-free line and they will get the specifics on the tickets.
"There's not a lot of tickets and not a lot of dollar amount involved but the players are entitled to the prizes if they've won them," Matheson.
Matheson said the problem arose when an operator at the central office did not reprogram the ticket checkers for the correct message.
He said there is a standard procedure in place when validation information isn't available, which was the case on March 1, the morning after the draw.
"Fortunately it turns about 75 per cent of the winning tickets that were checked have been checked later and have been cashed by players but there are still about 400 that haven't been cashed," he said.
As for the top prize - the choice of receiving $1 million a year for 25 years, or a one-time single payment of $17 million - no one has come forward.
That ticket was sold in Manitoba.
It's the second problem the lottery corporation has had with the Millionaire Life game. The corporation's website appeared to announce the winning numbers weeks before the draw took place on Feb. 28.
Lottery officials said at the time the numbers were included in a prototype web page for draw and an employee accidentally pushed a wrong button.