61-year-old punished for being unable to buy lottery ticket

[Doggy Styles]

Poor barstard...

National Lottery draw goes ahead despite massive ticketing problems

Lottery operator Camelot admitted computer terminals had crashed in shops over a four-hour period. Retired Army cryptologist Don Fraser, 61, from Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, said he had been unable to buy his usual numbers at three shops in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday. "It's an absolute shambles. I am being punished for being unable to buy a ticket," he said.

Has anyone else got a horror story from the great lottery terminal crash?

[PM-Junkie]

....just goes to confirm that the lottery is a tax on stupidity

[pmeswani]

....just goes to confirm that the lottery is a tax on stupidity

Similar things can be said about most permies.... Ooh did that come out loud?

[dang65]

On a whim yesterday I actually decided to buy a lottery ticket for the first time in ages, only to be told the system had crashed. Oh well, saved myself a quid there.

[Paddy]

I picked the winning numbers and have the lotto slip with the right numbers marked to prove it. Shall I sue Camelot?

[xoggoth]

Does anyone else here keep winning? Only ever £10 unfortunately, but I don't put much money into the lottery, it almost funds itself.

[PAH]

Had my granny moaning about this all last night, until I escaped out on the lash with the lads.

Fortunately her numbers didn't come up or there wouldn't have been an end to it and we'd have had to send her off to the pensioners junkyard.

I almost mentioned I could have set her an account up online, but couldn't be arsed. That was enough of a lotto gamble for me, and didn't cost a penny!

[BrilloPad]

I get the same numbers every 8 weeks (cost £16) so was unaffected.

[OwlHoot]

Does anyone else here keep winning? Only ever £10 unfortunately, but I don't put much money into the lottery, it almost funds itself.

I had two lots of 4 the other week, and won a measly £70.

You're really only playing for 6, or 5 and the bonus. Anything less is chump change (using the word "chump" advisedly).

which reminds me - I had a £100 flutter on that blasted Devon House, and the draw still hasn't been made.

[BrilloPad]

I had two lots of 4 the other week, and won a measly £70.

You're really only playing for 6, or 5 and the bonus. Anything less is chump change (using the word "chump" advisedly).

which reminds me - I had a £100 flutter on that blasted Devon House, and the draw still hasn't been made.

Dear Entrants,
This update is by way of a summary for the benefit of all entrants, some of whom are only just coming back to the website because this is the time of the original scheduled draw date.

We received our target of 46,000 entries on Sept 15th, and were making plans to bring the draw date forward and draw the winner early, on Oct 16th.
A letter from the Gambling Commission on the 1st October stopped us in our tracks. They wrote stating they were investigating all current competitions including ours to check the validity of the question asked.
After much correspondence between ourselves, our solicitor and our entrants, they have stated that we have not complied with their guidelines because in their opinion the skill level of our question ‘did not prevent a significant number of people from participating in our competition’. They further state that they have a duty to pursue and prosecute illegal gambling and if we proceed with the draw they will consider prosecution.

Naturally, we are the kind of family that are feeling quite intimidated by this.

Since our initial phone calls to the GC in March this year, (where we outlined our plans and the question we intended to ask and the value of the prize; they gave us no negative feedback) they have been aware of our Competition throughout the course and have even been available to make comments on an Internet law news site.
It was only days before the draw date that the GC contacted us with their suggestion that we postpone the draw.

We have been quite pro-active this last few weeks and as well as receiving over 1000 letters of support from our entrants which we presented to the GC (and they immediately disregarded), we have appeared on the BBC and have also written to the Prime Minister, Lord Mandelson, Alistair Darling, David Cameron and our own MP Nick Harvey. We have spoken with Charlie Wallis of the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport this week and asked for a meeting with them if they think it necessary, to discuss what has occurred to date, and how we progress to a successful conclusion. He has taken our comments to his senior and will contact us in the near future.

Whilst we are still waiting for correspondence with certain MP's we are not prepared to cancel the competition completely in case they can help us. We have to explore every avenue available to us, so people don't think we have conceded without trying. If we refunded tomorrow, and we receive the news next week that we can be helped, then we would never forgive ourselves for being hasty when we could have at least waited for a response from the MP's we have written to. We do not expect miracles, but expect some form of justice for the inconsistent behaviour of the Gambling Commission, and we have asked them for clarification as to why they haven’t used guideline 3.14 which states that they could act leniently if they feel that despite our best efforts we fell a little short of their standards and a ‘misjudgement’ was made.

The original draw date was to be within two weeks of the original closing date of December 7th, so an announcement of the winner wasn't going to be made until around Christmas time. We are hoping to have made a decision one way or another by that time and be making an announcement on the Competition website and our MySpace profile.
If we do receive the assistance we have asked for, and we do go ahead with the draw, you will still be eligible to win The Retreat if you have a confirmed payment when we check with PayPal, as this will validate your entry number/s. (This is something we will check, and will not seek any form of confirmation from yourselves.)

If ultimately we make the decision to close the Competition without drawing a winner we will refund all entrant money en mass, so nobody will lose out.
The funds are currently being held securely by Paypal but on a 0% interest to us basis, so there is no advantage to us at all in this competition having become protracted.
For those that may query, we don’t know what interest if any PayPal are earning on the funds. We feel that this is not where we should aim our grievance at the funds being tied.
The longer the situation is unresolved, the more our two nominated charities lose out on any surplus that there is. Which is why we need the competition having urgent attention paid to it by the prominent MP’s we have contacted.

We hope that you approve of the stance we have taken and trust that this news isn't too disappointing to you, as you should now be reading all about the draw, and who could win The Retreat.
We very much appreciate all the support we have received over the last few weeks, especially at this time whilst the situation is still quite difficult.

We are doing everything in our power to keep the dream alive, and that somebody will still win this haven.

Best Wishes


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