THE National Lottery has reminded players to check the numbers on their tickets when they buy them. This follows a woman's complaint that her Lotto playslip was wrongly "read" by the machine in a Dublin shop.
A spokeswoman for the Lotto said it "happens occasionally" that the reader machines in shops incorrectly read playslips because of dust in the machine or on the playslip itself.
A creased playslip, or one that contains indentations because someone had filled out the slip above it, can also lead to a wrong reading.
The spokeswoman was speaking after a woman complained that the automatic machine she used in McCormacks shop, on the South Circular Road, Dublin, misread one of the six numbers on her Lotto playslip.
An examination by the Lotto concluded there was no problem with the shop's machine and that the mistake was due to dust or some other such reason.
The 2,000 reader machines around the country "read" Lotto slips and send the information to the National Lottery's mainframe computer, in Abbey Street in Dublin, where the numbers selected are recorded, the spokeswoman explained. These numbers are then printed out in the shop on the player's lottery ticket.
There has never been a case of a technical fault with a reader machine itself, or with the recording of numbers by the mainframe computer, the spokeswoman said.
She added: "Our advice is that players should check their numbers when they play them. If there is a problem, then the agent will cancel the old numbers, and play the slip again."
Mr Eddie McCormack Jnr, of McCormacks shop, said there had been a problem with a misread playslip in his shop, but said he did not wish to comment further.