Players spending time and money playing lotteries, at online casinos and live casinos should pay attention, and there have been new developments in these industries.
Things are about to get better for lottery players as a new proposed bill in Oregon states that lottery winners should get paid in if there is a technical glitch or malfunction. This was revealed in February by Sara Gelser, a democrat and representative of the legislation.
Will There be a Pause
According to the proposed bill, Senate Bill 483, the Oregon Lottery should pause the lottery in the event of a malfunction until the issue has been resolved. The bill also states that the Oregon Lottery should ‘make all reasonable efforts’ to identify winners in the event of an error and ensure all winners are paid with minimal delay. Any unclaimed wins will contribute to the state of Oregon’s problem gambling fund. This bill therefore makes it clear that players will have the right to expect their wins even when there is a technology error or malfunction, while any unclaimed wins will go towards a good cause, which serves the entire state.
This proposal comes after the Oregon Lottery revealed plans to launch mobile sports betting in the state later this year. Gelser brought to attention two previous incidents of error in the Oregon Lottery over the past two years. These errors resulted in either winning players get no wins or less wins that expected, and the state benefitting from these malfunctions by keeping money owed to players.
What Happened
In one such incident, there was a reset of the lottery’s progressive jackpot, which resulted in all jackpots being reset back to $500. This means those who got paid into the jackpots, didn’t receive any wins above $500.
The second incident occurred on the state’s Keno game, which is similar to lottery games. Last year, winning Keno tickets were being scanned as losing tickets for six hours, resulting in many winners getting rid of their tickets and not claiming their wins. According to the state, there was no way to identify and pay out all affected players accurately and efficiently.
Gelser further stated that the proposed bill is a basic matter of fairness – of the lottery breaks, it is the state’s ‘moral obligation’ to fix the problem and to still pay all winning players and, more importantly, should not benefit from this. Another fair point that was made was that if a malfunction happened in a casino and those wins were not paid out, the casino would possibility lose their gaming license. Therefore, the same rules should apply to the state lottery.
While online lottery play is easier to track as there is a digital trail, regular lottery tickets are completely different as there is no record of people who bought tickets. In November, the state lottery launched a mobile app for scanning paper tickets; however, the app does not allow purchase of tickets online.
Gelser feels that the first step the state lottery should take when experiencing a malfunction is to put out a press release informing the public of any error or technological malfunction that could affect the game, and more importantly, the winner’s payouts. This did not happen in the case of the Keno game error.
According to an official report by the Oregon Live, the state lottery never widely disclosed the glitch during the Keno incident, giving players no chance to claim their wins. Even worse, the lottery did not pause the Keno game during the glitch, adding insult to injury.
A Way Forward
Under this new proposed bill, the state needs to do everything in its powered to identify players, while all unclaimed funds must go towards helping problem gamblers. It’s fair and it helps the industry and state as a whole.
Gelser insists that, had the bill been in place at the time of the Keno malfunction, the state lottery would have to pause play and all winnings not paid out would have to go towards a fund dedicated to helping problem gamblers. Essentially, the point is that players are entitled to their wins regardless of whether there was a mechanical glitch or not, while any money that was not claimed during this glitch should be put towards a good cause. Regardless, the state should not get this money, it should go elsewhere.
