After five days of paralysis due to a computer problem, sales of Loto-Québec lottery tickets gradually resumed on Wednesday evening.
Posted at 1:02 p.m.
Updated at 6:44 p.m.
“Loto-Québec is pleased to announce that lottery activities are gradually returning to normal,” the state-owned corporation said Wednesday evening.
Ticket sales and verification will therefore be possible at retailers, on the lotoquebec.com website and on the mobile application. “It should also be possible to claim prizes and obtain the results of the draws,” specifies Loto-Québec in a press release.
Sales of Loto-Quebec’s most popular products, such as Loto Max and La grande vie, have been paralyzed since Sunday due to a computer problem shortly after the start of a strike by its 455 professional employees.
The return to normal does not concern Lotto 6/49, the launch of a new version of which has been postponed due to the labor dispute among professional employees of Loto-Québec. Verification of Lotto 6/49 tickets from the last draw will not be possible before the launch of the new version scheduled for September 21.
“All the draws that could not be made since September 11 for lotteries offered in Quebec only, such as Banco, Quebec 49 or Quotidienne, have been resumed” also indicated Loto-Québec.
Loto-Québec had never experienced a computer failure of this magnitude. The state-owned company assures that it was not the victim of hacking and that its striking employees are not responsible for the problems that arose during the night of Saturday to Sunday last.
Due to the labor dispute, it took longer to fix the computer problem and catch up on the backlog in data processing. The employees who went on strike are back at work, having reached a tentative agreement with their employer that has yet to be voted on.
The products affected by the computer failure normally generate 2 million sales per day for Loto-Québec. They account for 70% of the crown corporation’s total lottery revenue, which exceeded $1 billion in its last fiscal year 2021-2022.