Sales Suspended In Lottery InstaPlay Game Following Vendor Glitch
System Error Leads To Interruption In Sales
Digital images of the Iowa Lottery logo and the InstaPlay logo in JPEG and EPS formats are available.
CLIVE, Iowa - A vendor system glitch led the Iowa Lottery to suspend sales in one of its InstaPlay games on Sunday after duplicate plays were produced in that game. Records show that 28 duplicate plays were sold to players during a 25-minute span Sunday morning, and Iowa Lottery officials encourage anyone with questions to contact them.
"The number of affected players and tickets in this situation may be modest, but you simply cannot put a price on doing the right thing," Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn said. "The right thing today was to suspend sales of the game in question and have our team work to fix the issue. Maintaining the integrity of Iowa Lottery products and giving every player a fair chance to win every time must be job one."
The "Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay" game appears to be the only Iowa Lottery product affected. Sales in that game were suspended about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and remain suspended at this time. Lottery records show that of the 28 duplicate plays sold in the game, 8 indicated winnings totaling $23.
The $2 Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game has been sold in Iowa since November 2016. Its top prize is called progressive because it starts at $2,000 and increases with each ticket sold statewide until it is won.
The InstaPlay product combines features from instant-scratch and lotto games. InstaPlay tickets are called "scratchless" because they have no security coating that needs to be removed to determine the prize won. And rather than having supplies of tickets printed in advance like those in traditional scratch and pull-tab games, InstaPlay tickets are generated by a vendor system and printed on demand from the lottery terminal.
Shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday, the Lottery and its system vendor learned that sales in the Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game appeared to have reset to a point several hours earlier as an apparent result of a system and equipment reset that the vendor performed that morning. This glitch caused duplicate plays of the Cherry Twist Progressive game to be sold. Once the issue was identified, sales in the game were immediately suspended. A total of 28 duplicate plays in the game were sold to lottery players from about 9:05 a.m. until 9:29 a.m. Sunday.
"While we know that the number of folks potentially impacted by the situation is small, we also want to hear from anyone who may have questions," Strawn said. "As soon as the error became apparent, sales in this game were suspended and will remain so as we continue to review the situation to pinpoint exactly what occurred."
Strawn urged any players with questions to contact Iowa Lottery Security at 515-725-7900 or Wmaster@ialottery.com, and if they believe they have one of the tickets involved in the Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game, they should take that ticket to one of the lottery’s regional offices or mail it to the lottery at: Iowa Lottery, 13001 University Ave., Clive, Iowa 50325-8225.
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