Canadian Bank Note (CBN) Lottery Group has had a myriad of problems with their new online lottery software since its
deployment in Aruba. Initially, the decision was made to perform a total switch over from the existing lottery system, but this resulted
in an outage that lasted several days. During that time, resellers were unable to use either of the systems and lost
their income while the problems were worked out. For resellers it was hardsince they depend on their commissions.
To make matters worse, on several occasions, this problem has reoccurred due to software updates, again leaving the resellers
with periods of lost income. Next, issues were found with the software’s ability to manage sales limits. It seems that, in some cases,
individuals could exceed the number of pieces that were to be sold for any date and number combination. The exploitation of this
problem combined with a winning ticket could have resulted in winnings in the millions instead of thousands.Most recently, a severe problem has been
identi fied in the redemption accounting process of the software. It seems that when resellers redeem multi-draw tickets and there are remaining days, they are wrongly charged again for the remaining
days without receiving income. The bottom line is just yet another example of money out of the reseller’s pocket.
No matter how the resellers complain, the lottery provider continues to assert that the system is infallible and that the resellers
are clearly wrong. In the end, the resellers are forced to pay the wrongful charges or completely lose their ability to resell the
lottery tickets and in many cases, to support their families.
The real questions are; how much money are the resellers going to lose before the problems are solved, and how many other
issues remain unknown to date.
deployment in Aruba. Initially, the decision was made to perform a total switch over from the existing lottery system, but this resulted
in an outage that lasted several days. During that time, resellers were unable to use either of the systems and lost
their income while the problems were worked out. For resellers it was hardsince they depend on their commissions.
To make matters worse, on several occasions, this problem has reoccurred due to software updates, again leaving the resellers
with periods of lost income. Next, issues were found with the software’s ability to manage sales limits. It seems that, in some cases,
individuals could exceed the number of pieces that were to be sold for any date and number combination. The exploitation of this
problem combined with a winning ticket could have resulted in winnings in the millions instead of thousands.Most recently, a severe problem has been
identi fied in the redemption accounting process of the software. It seems that when resellers redeem multi-draw tickets and there are remaining days, they are wrongly charged again for the remaining
days without receiving income. The bottom line is just yet another example of money out of the reseller’s pocket.
No matter how the resellers complain, the lottery provider continues to assert that the system is infallible and that the resellers
are clearly wrong. In the end, the resellers are forced to pay the wrongful charges or completely lose their ability to resell the
lottery tickets and in many cases, to support their families.
The real questions are; how much money are the resellers going to lose before the problems are solved, and how many other
issues remain unknown to date.