You can no longer place your bets, because nothing is going right at Loto-Québec, whose sales of the most popular products have been paralyzed since Sunday by a computer problem that is depriving the state corporation of $2 million a day.
Posted at 5:25 p.m.
The problem occurred overnight from Saturday to Sunday, so the winners of Saturday’s Lotto 6/49 draw have not yet been able to get their tickets validated. Loto-Québec and its customers were also unable to participate in the two other draws for this popular Canada-wide lottery that have since taken place, or the next ones.
We will have to wait until Wednesday, September 21 for the restart of 6/49, said the spokesman for the state company, Renaud Dugas.
Loto-Québec’s computer system crashed overnight from Saturday to Sunday, a few hours after the outbreak of an indefinite general strike by its 455 professional employees.
The union members, among whom there are many computer scientists and computer analysts, deny that they are responsible for the problem. “Employees no longer had access to the computer system (when the problem arose),” assured Guillaume Bouvrette, vice-president of the Syndicate of Professionals of the Government of Quebec, to which the employees of Loto-Quebec are affiliated.
The computer problem is not related to the conflict, also assures the CEO of the state-owned company, Jean-François Bergeron. “It was pure coincidence, we don’t believe in sabotage,” he said in a radio interview.
Due to the dispute, Loto-Québec still chose to postpone the planned migration of its Lotto 6/49 to a new computer platform, which explains why this very popular product will not be back on the Quebec market until September 21.
The striking employees returned to work on Tuesday, after reaching a tentative agreement with their employer that will be put to a vote in the coming days.
The state-owned company thinks it can restart sales of its prints, other than 6/49 today (Wednesday), after a lot of catch-up work in data processing. Draw lotteries such as 6/49, Loto Max and La grande vie account for 70% of Loto-Québec’s lottery revenues, which exceeded $1 billion in 2021-2022.
Pending the resumption of activities, the Loto-Québec website advises its customers to keep their tickets and ensures that all winning prizes will be honored.
It is too early to quantify the financial losses for Loto-Québec and its retailers deprived of products to sell, with the exception of scratch tickets, said the state corporation.