COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – The South Carolina Education Lottery says a glitch made some tickets look like winners. Now, that game is on hold.

According to a press release, the lottery’s computer system vendor, Intralot, experienced a programming error on Christmas Day that impacted Holiday Cash Add-A-Play tickets, a $1 terminal-generated instant game.  From 5:51 p.m. to 7:53 p.m., the same play symbol was repeated in all nine available play areas on tickets which would result in a top prize of $500.

No more than five identical play symbols should appear for a single play. As soon as the issue was identified, the Add-A-Play game was suspended immediately to conduct a thorough investigation. Scratch-off tickets and all other lottery games were unaffected by this error.

Holiday Cash Add-A-Play game sales and validations will remain suspended until further notice. All players who purchased a Holiday Cash Add-A-Play ticket on Christmas Day during the time period affected are advised to hold on to their ticket(s) until the review is completed.  A further announcement will be made at the end of this week.