COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – The South Carolina Education Lottery says players who thought they won $500 from a December 2017 game, will not receive their winnings.
Lottery officials announced in a press release Wednesday that anyone who purchased a Holiday Cash Add A Play ticket on December 25, 2017 between 5:51 p.m. until the close of the game at 7:53 p.m. that depicted nine tree symbols will receive a refund for the ticket. Those ticket holders will not receive the winnings because officials say the tickets were “erroneously produced.”
“This decision is required by South Carolina Code Section 59-150-230(C)(3)(a) which provides that prizes arising from a ticket produced or issued in error must not be paid,” the release states.
Before making the decision, lottery officials hired Gaming Laboratories International, LLC (GLI) to conduct an independent, impartial analysis, which revealed coding errors by SCEL’s former computer gaming vendor, and the vendor’s inadequate quality assurance testing that would have discovered these errors before the tickets were distributed.
Approximately 71,000 winning tickets were printed in error, “which were incorrectly recognized as a $500 winning play.”
To seek the refund of the purchase price of the tickets, a player should mail the original Holiday Cash Add-A-Play tickets (no copies or other reproductions will be processed for reimbursement) purchased on or after 5:51(17:51) p.m. on December 25, 2017 to this address:
S.C. Education Lottery
P.O. Box 11039
Columbia, SC 29211-1039
Include your name and return address. SCEL will refund the purchase price for each returned ticket and reimburse the player for postage up to the amount of first class USPS postage for the ticket(s) submitted to SCEL. Since these reimbursements will require manual processing, we ask that players mail in all tickets to avoid wait time at the Claim Center. Requests for Holiday Cash Add-A-Play refunds must be received by SCEL no later than January 7, 2019.
