Online Toto Quick Pick option hit by two glitches
MHA investigating; one glitch left number 49 out of generated numbers for over a year
Punters using the Singapore Pools' online Toto Quick Pick option have been affected by two software glitches, one of which left the number 49 out of the numbers generated in their bets for a period of more than a year.
In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said it was notified of the glitches earlier this month.
"MHA takes a very serious view of these errors and is currently investigating the matter," said the gambling regulator, adding that Singapore Pools has since rectified the errors.
The errors affected punters who placed their bets online, said the MHA, noting that customers who placed bets at Singapore Pools retail outlets in person were not affected.
Singapore Pools alerted the ministry of the first software error on Jan 3 this year, which involved Toto Quick Pick numbers purchased through its online platforms.
Punters who place bets via the Quick Pick option allow the Singapore Pools system to generate a random set of numbers for them.
The first glitch resulted in the system excluding the number 49 and selecting numbers from 1 to 48 only, when generating Quick Pick numbers for customers placing bets online.
Singapore Pools was alerted to the glitch on Dec 18 last year and rectified it three days later.
The lottery operator discovered the second software glitch in the Toto Quick Pick System Roll while resolving the first error on Dec 20 last year and reported it to the ministry on Jan 10 this year.
In the Quick Pick System Roll, a set of five numbers are randomly generated with a sixth "rolling" number, designated as R that represents all the remaining 44 numbers.
Because of the glitch, instead of randomly generating six numbers and then assigning R in place of one of the six generated numbers, the system replaced the largest of the six generated numbers with R instead.
The MHA said after Singapore Pools got confirmation from its service provider on Sunday of the glitch, it fixed the error the next day.
SYSTEM UPDATE
In a statement, the lottery operator said an internal review of the system found that the software glitches were introduced on Oct 2, 2018, during a system update conducted by a service vendor.
The glitches did not affect how the winning numbers were drawn for Toto, said Singapore Pools.
On the impact of the glitches, it said there were 14 Toto draws that included 49 as a winning number while its system was glitched.
It said the glitches impacted about 3 per cent of Toto sales but declined to reveal the number of affected punters.
About 130 Toto draws were conducted while the glitches were in the system.
Singapore Pools said it will contact affected customers and refund the bets they had placed in the 14 draws where 49 was drawn as a winning number.
It will also provide a goodwill token to the group of customers who may have missed out on potential winnings in the 14 draws. It did not elaborate on what this token was.
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