Gambling mishaps international – not only in Germany

Those who sat in front of the television last Saturday full of suspense with their lottery ticket and were waiting to become millionaires by playing the right lottery balls had to be patient. Because with the weekly drawing in the Lotto 6 from 49, with which it went this time around a Jackpot of 6 million euro, it came to a momentous mishap.

After the drawing device correctly rolled the lottery balls one to three (tip numbers 10-15-47) into the containers provided for them, an unforeseen mistake occurred during the drawing of the fourth ball. Instead of one ball, the lottery machine drew two numbers (the 25 and the 1).

The German-Canadian presenter Miriam Hannah (37), who has been hosting the live stream of the Saturday lottery draw “6 out of 49” since 2017, took note of the incident with a smile and immediately called in the draw director. For you, the breakdown seemed far from the end of the world. So she informed the viewers on the TV sets that the situation was suitable for a look behind the scenes of the show:

“This is the dreaded accident. And I’ve always looked forward to it because then you’ll see that everything is real. You finally see the draw team, and you see what’s going on here if it doesn’t work out.”

Without any problems the replacement machine finally threw out the 5th ball (42) and 6th ball (31), so the winning numbers for the “Lotto 6 out of 49” on Saturday were 10-15-47-25-42-31. Now only a super number had to be determined to be able to choose a jackpot winner. It was zero.

Incidents of this kind are not unique so far but happened both in the recent German past and abroad.

These Lotto breakdowns heated the minds

This was not the first time in German lottery history that a defective drawing device caused problems. The last time the draw “Lotto 6 out of 49” had a technical breakdown was in 2013.

Two balls had not fallen into the lottery machine, but had previously got stuck on the so-called “sledge”. Especially bitter: Since the mistake was only noticed when collecting the balls after the live broadcast, some players probably already thought they were the winners. The draw, which was conducted by the German lottery company, had to be repeated.

Such mishaps also occur in foreign climes. So it came to our Austrian neighbours in the last years to Lotto-Eklats. In one case, the lottery drawing “6 out of 45” in December 2018 did not initially involve a ball rolling out of a ticket machine.
In this case, too, the draw had to be interrupted and continued with a replacement device.

Not only machines on strike

An incident in February 1999 proved that in the lottery not only the drawing devices can strike. In the draw for “Game 77”, the ball with the number 6 was simply broken in the lottery drum. After changing the ball, however, the draw could continue.

Slot machine defective, jackpot denied
Legal disputes over the payout of winnings have repeatedly arisen in connection with jackpots at casino slot machines.

In a prominent case, a woman from the US metropolis of New York sued a casino in the Queens district. She had played on a slot machine and won a jackpot of 43 million US dollars (approx. 35.5 million euros). However, the single mother saw nothing of the money. According to the New York State Gaming Commission, the machine malfunctioned, and all winnings were void.
The same happened to the US-American Cynthia Obie. However, the jackpot was not withheld from the woman from near Washington DC because of a malfunction of the slot machine, but because of the misconduct of a casino employee.

Due to a number turner when registering her social security number, the casino registered Obie in a database of maintenance debtors. Winnings from these individuals must be withheld by the casino prior to withdrawal and forwarded to the appropriate authorities.
Especially with high jackpots, the rule does not seem to apply that you should trust your own luck too early.