Everyone’s a winner! Right?
A lottery in Iowa released a statement on Wednesday, describing how ‘redundant reporting procedures’ failed and caused some lucky lottery players to temporarily have the winning numbers.
“As part of the Iowa Lottery’s procedures, two different people in two different locations both enter the results from lotto drawings before they are officially recorded on the lottery’s statewide gaming system,” officials explained. “However, when the winning numbers from Monday’s Powerball drawing were being inputted, some of the numbers were mistakenly entered incorrectly.”
“It takes time to correct an error like that on the lottery’s statewide gaming system, which links all the lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in the state,” officials noted. “Lottery staff were able to complete the corrections by yesterday [Tuesday] afternoon.”
However, the original ‘winners’ are still allowed to keep their money, which ranged from approximately $4 to $200, according to the Associated Press. The total amount paid out to these temporary winners equaled $24,382 in winnings.
“We at the Iowa Lottery sincerely apologize for the interruption,” lottery officials said, stating that they would continue to improve their drawing review procedures.
The actual winning numbers were 2-21-38-61-66 and Powerball 12, with the Powerball jackpot estimated to be $355 million.
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