A “SOFTWARE glitch” during Saturday night’s Lotto broadcast on RTÉ television resulted in the incorrect numbers being displayed at the end of the programme.
While the draw was carried out correctly during the live broadcast on RTÉ 1, the numbers displayed at the end were wrong for the main Lotto jackpot of €4.8 million and Lotto Plus 2 draws.
RTÉ has blamed a software update, which was carried out ahead of Saturday’s draw.
A spokeswoman said the error was spotted almost immediately and, to rectify it, three peak-time 40-second continuity announcements were made that evening giving the correct numbers and displaying them visually.
The announcements were made after Winning Streakat 9.19pm, after the weather forecast at 9.48pm, and after the Saturday Night Showat 11.10pm.
The National Lottery expressed concern yesterday that the mistake could have potentially interfered with the competition and resulted in someone missing out on a life-changing prize.
However, a spokeswoman for the lottery said that, because the incorrect figures were on screen for such a short period of time, they were unlikely to have caused someone to discard a winning ticket.
She said that while “these things do happen” there was concern that “anything would interfere with someone claiming a prize”.
“We would like to know what happened and would like to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” she added.
The winning ticket for the main jackpot was sold in a Centra in Newport, Co Tipperary. The winner has 90 days from last Saturday to claim their prize.
