Premier Lotteries Ireland Breaches Licence
The National Lottery in Ireland had a breach of its licence between September and October 2022.
Lottery prizes in Ireland were not claimed due to a system error. © Thanasis Papazacharias, Pixabay
Premier Lotteries Ireland Breaches Licence After Prizes Unclaimed
The operator of Ireland’s National Lottery has been revealed to be in breach of its licence. Hundreds of prizes on the lottery went unclaimed thanks to an error that occurred between September and October 2022.
The breach was revealed by the Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery (ORNL), which is responsible for regulating the National Lottery in Ireland.
In the ORNL annual report for 2023, it said lottery operator Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) would not receive €23,000 in expected payments, with the money instead diverted to social causes.
PLI identified the problem itself and reported it to ORNL, with no suspension of the licence confirmed as part of the punishment.
In 2014, the Irish Government gave PLI a 20-year contract to operate the lottery in Ireland and the company was acquired by French gambling giant La Française des Jeux last year.
How Did The Breach Occur?
According to the ORNL, the breach of the PLI licence happened when its Check My Numbers facility was made available when it should not have been.
Draw results had not been verified, with some players receiving a ‘Ticket Not a Winner’ message. But this was not the case, with almost 400 lottery prizes going unclaimed.
“In fact, the numbers they had entered were winning numbers in the draw that had just taken place and was still being verified”, the ORNL said in a statement.
The vast majority of the unclaimed prizes were relatively low, between €2 and €24, although one of them had a €250 win.
Lottery Sales Down
ORNL’s report also revealed a drop in the sales of lottery tickets in Ireland. Its data shows sales for 2023 were down by more than six per cent when compared to 2022, with around 40 per cent of Irish adults said to play the lottery on a regular basis.
There was some good news, though, as the first draw-based National Lottery game in Ireland since 2004 was launched. Called EuroDreams and taking place twice a week, the draw pays out a top prize to players of €20,000 per month.
ORNL also revealed that during the period in question it had made fresh improvements to its self-exclusion facility, with players able to block themselves from Interactive Instant Win games.
Changes to online betting and the industry in general are likely to be on the way in Ireland. The Gambling Regulation Bill in the country is now approaching its final stages.
