‘Slight Problem’ is Double Trouble in State Keno Game

A “slight problem” with a California Lottery computer Sunday left holders of nearly 3,000 winning Five Spot Keno Special tickets statewide without the double payoff promised in the lottery’s promotion for the new game.

For 19 hours on the promotion’s first day--from 6 a.m. Sunday to 1 a.m. Monday--the Keno computers were not programmed to pay double to people who correctly picked four of five or five of five numbers on the television screens where the game is played, lottery spokeswoman Norma Minas said.

Thus, 2,831 winning tickets held by people who selected four of five numbers--or “spots” in lottery parlance--paid off at $10, instead of $20, Minas said. And 142 tickets sold to people who correctly chose five of five numbers during that period paid out $250, instead of the promised $500.

Lottery officials will make good on the double payoff for anyone holding a winning ticket issued during that period, Minas said.

The promotion, which is scheduled to continue through July 24, applied only to those who played 10 consecutive times, Minas said. The affected Keno wagers made up less than 1% of the 318,281 tickets sold that day, she said.

“We had a slight problem with it, but it was corrected by the time the computer came back up Monday morning,” Minas said.

She said the lottery must verify a winning ticket before it will double the payoff. Once word of the problem trickled out this week, some have called the lottery office in Sacramento hoping to come up a winner without benefit of a ticket.

“We asked all of them to submit a claim form with their ticket,” Minas said. “Some of them (said), ‘Well, I didn’t buy a ticket.’ ” If you didn’t buy a ticket, you didn’t play.”

In all, lottery officials received about 60 calls from players and retailers who said they were owed a double payoff, she said.

Lottery officials were still sorting out exactly what went wrong, Minas said, but believe the program for the promotion was loaded into the computer incorrectly Saturday night, before the scheduled Sunday start-up.

Those holding winning tickets may contact the lottery directly to submit their claims or pick up a claim form from the store or restaurant where they purchased the ticket.