Software glitch sidelines Pick 3

More bad news for the Texas Lottery.

The Texas Lottery Commission suspended sales of tickets for its Pick 3 game Thursday night after the lottery operator said there was a computer code problem associated with the game.

Drawings for the game will continue and any tickets already purchased for Pick 3 drawings are valid, said lottery spokesman Robert Elrod. Drawings are held twice a day Monday through Saturday.

Elrod said officials don't know when GTECH Corp. will have the problem corrected. "We're hoping it is soon," he said.

He said he didn't know when sales will resume.

What problem did that "glitch" cause? How many tickets may have been affected? Are we sure that "glitch" won't affect other games? Sorry, this was all I could find in Google News at this time.

It sure has been a bad week for the Lottery, hasn't it? The Express News gave the Lottery Commission an editorial spanking on Wednesday, asking "Should the commission take some of the bucks it spends on high-priced television ads to prop up the prizes?" And Save Texas Reps says the problems are just beginning.

Now, with a special legislative session set to begin on June 21, House Investigations Committee chairman Kevin Bailey (D-Houston) is demanding more information about [Lottery Commissioner Reagan] Greer’s decision to tout make-believe jackpots in last week’s Lotto drawing. Kino Flores (D-Mission), chairman of the House committee that oversees the Lottery, is talking about public hearings into the latest Lottery scandals as well as the continuing controversy over a possibly illegal contract with a Las Vegas law firm.

(Special session? So far only the Express News is reporting this, though the Quorum Report mentioned it yesterday as well. Given that it's Friday and the 21st is Tuesday, I'm thinking there'll have to be a formal announcement today in order to ensure everyone can make it back to Austin on time. We'll see.)

Background on the Vegas contract is here. There's nothing that I've found in the news yet about any discord with Reagan Greer or calls for investigations, so who knows what may come of this. No matter what, though, it's been a lousy week for the Lottery.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 17, 2005 to Jackpot! | TrackBack