Wrong Tickets Dispensed in Lottery Snafu : Wagering: Computer error shuts down Saturday sales early, switching purchases to Wednesday’s draw.

A computer operator in Sacramento mistakenly closed Saturday’s state lottery games three hours early, causing machines to begin dispensing tickets for Wednesday’s games instead, thus shutting thousands of gamblers out of the Daily 3, Decco and a $3-million Super Lotto drawing.

All tickets bought on Saturday between 4:48 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. were for Wednesday’s games instead of Saturday’s. Many people chose not to buy tickets, but those that were sold will be honored for both Saturday’s and Wednesday’s games, lottery director Del Pierce said in a statement released Sunday.

The mistake was immediately reported to supervisors at GTECH Corp., which operates the lottery computer, officials said. The error affected all 13,000 terminals selling tickets in the state.

The computer error automatically activated GTECH’s security safeguards, ending issuance of tickets for Saturday’s draws. Allowing the betting pools to be reopened once they have closed could open the possibility that a winning number could fraudulently be put into the system, lottery officials said.

No tickets matching all six numbers were sold after the betting pools were accidentally closed, officials said. One ticket sold in San Pedro before the computer error matched the winning numbers picked Saturday--2, 12, 22, 30, 33, 40--for the $3-million jackpot.

Tickets matching five of the six numbers are worth $822, and those matching four of six numbers each win $59. Tickets with three of six numbers are worth an automatic $5.

Players with winning tickets sold during the three-hour period must file a claim form available at lottery retailers. Officials said they should make a copy of the ticket and mail the original to the California Lottery, 610 N. 10th St., Sacramento, Calif. 95814, with “Extra Draw” printed on the envelope.

Daily 3 and Decco tickets sold after Saturday’s error will be handled the same way, officials said, adding that they had not determined how many tickets were sold during the three-hour period. The error closing the pools early was the first such mistake in the California Lottery’s nine-year history, officials said.

Customers were in an angry mood at John & Pete’s liquor store on North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles until the problem was explained, said Pete Burra Jr., the store’s co-owner.

“We had a lot of people complaining,” said Burra, whose store normally sells most of its tickets between 3 and 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

“Customers recognized the problem almost immediately,” he said. “We usually sell a lot of tickets between 5 and the closing of the game, but we decided to close the machine.”

Burra estimated that he lost between $500 and $1,000 in sales. “There was only a $3-million jackpot,” he said. “Had it been a large jackpot, it would have been a different story.”

A clerk at the Liquor Bank on Crenshaw Boulevard in Southwest Los Angeles said her customers “were mad because they thought we were at fault at first.” Once the problem was explained, customers understood, she said.

Tina Portanova, manager of a 7-Eleven store in Agoura Hills, said her customers were also angry until they realized that the problem was not the store’s fault.

“Customers felt they should have rolled over the prize money because not everybody could buy their tickets,” she said.

Some customers are still complaining, she said Sunday, “but that’s just Agoura. They’re going to (complain) about a week.”

* LOTTERY RESULTS: B1