A woman who played the lottery in South Carolina was disappointed when she learned that her "winning" tickets were caused by a programming glitch. (Reuters)
A South Carolina woman thought she was experiencing a year-end miracle when she bought a winning $500 “Holiday Cash” insta-pay ticket.
However, it was more like a major disappointment.
Nicole Coggins, who lives in Liberty, SC and doesn’t usually play the lottery very much, then bought three more tickets, which were all winners.
“I thought maybe there’s something wrong with the machine. This can’t be real,’’ she told Greenville TV station WYFF.
Her instinct was right.
Coggins was later told that they were invalid when she tried to cash the "winners."
A programming glitch created too many winning "add a play" tickets for two hours on Christmas Day.
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No more than five identical play symbols should appear for a single play. Once the issue was identified, the game was suspended immediately to conduct a thorough investigation.
State officials also reportedly said that anyone who purchased a Holiday Cash Add-A-Play ticket on Christmas Day between the hours of 5:51 p.m. and 7:53 p.m. should hold on to their tickets until a full review is completed.
If the state decides to honor the tickets, it will have to play Santa Claus to the tune of some $19.6 million, reports the New York Post.
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