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FANS OF VIRGINIA LOTTERY FAST PLAY GAMES TO BENEFIT FROM A LOTTERY GLITCH
January 24, 2012
A brief malfunction by the Virginia Lottery’s gaming system will work to the benefit of Fast Play game players. Lottery officials today announced a special promotion, “Fast Play February,” in which players can enter non-winning tickets from any Fast Play game for a chance to win a $25 American Express gift card. A total of 300 gift cards will be awarded in the March 6 drawing. Tickets must be purchased during February to qualify.
The Virginia Lottery currently offers five Fast Play games, including 3 Card Bingo, Blackjack, Bonus Bingo, Dodgeball and Find the 9’s. The games are designed to offer the excitement of a terminal-generated game, but instead of having to wait for a drawing, players can play and find out immediately if they won.
On December 24, the Virginia Lottery’s gaming system malfunctioned for approximately nine hours. During that time some Fast Play tickets were incorrectly read by terminals as losing tickets, when in fact they were winners. The Lottery determined that up to 294 winning tickets could have been misread during that time, totaling an estimated $1,467 in prizes. The average prize for the misread tickets was $5.
Only the Fast Play games were affected. The Lottery was made aware of the malfunction by its vendor and a few subsequent calls from players.
Lottery officials want to make good with those players who were inconvenienced. Most of them have probably discarded the tickets, so there is no way of knowing who they are. That’s why the Lottery is offering the Fast Play February Second Chance Sweepstakes with $7,500 in gift card giveaways. The deadlines are March 2 for mail-in entries and March 5 for entries at the Lottery web site, www.valottery.com. If a player has a ticket that was misread, it is still valid and can be redeemed for the stated prize.
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