A faulty smartphone app has apparently caused a couple in the U.K. to be denied a $52 million lottery jackpot.
You think you have bad luck? Don’t tell that to Edwina and David Nylan, grandparents in England who instead of celebrating the New Year $35.4 million richer by choosing all six winning numbers in the 2,087th Lotto, they are consoling themselves over the missed fortune.
Imagine choosing all six winning numbers, then calling the U.K lottery to claim the jackpot, only to have a lottery representative on the other end of the line tell you that you entered the drawing too late. That’s exactly what happened to Edwina.
Edwina told the South West News Service (SWNS), “We’ve tried to have a laugh about it but we’re completely distraught,” adding that, “We’ve spent years paying out for the lottery and this money could have changed our lives. We feel like we’ve been cheated out of it.”
According to the SWNS report, on December 23 Edwina and her husband David used a cell phone app to make the online £2 lottery ticket purchase. During the purchase they were alerted that they needed to add more funds to their account to complete the purchase, which they did. Then, after choosing six numbers – 01 – 02 – 04 – 19 – 28 – 41 – randomly, they purchased the ticket and the app confirmed the buy, according to the couple. That’s where the good news ends, because there is no record of the purchase, lottery officials say.
Authorities reportedly confirmed that they do have a record of the couple making repeated attempts to add money to their account to purchase tickets as it got closer to the 7:30 p.m. drawing limit, but that a completed transaction was not registered before the deadline. The Telegraph was told by a Camelot lottery spokeswoman, “The player did attempt to purchase an online Lotto ticket multiple times on December 23 from 7pm onwards (the cut-off to buy tickets is 7.30pm), however there were insufficient funds in the player’s account – so the attempted purchases were not successful. “The player would have received an error message on every occasion confirming this.”
Edwina regrettably admitted, “I didn’t remember to check because it was just before Christmas and I was so busy.” The Mirror reported that the payment did eventually get processed, but not until way past the deadline the next day at midnight, on December 24.
And how was YOUR Christmas?