Unable to sell a single raffle ticket since Sunday, Loto-Québec is hoping things will return to normal on Thursday, thanks to IT staff returning to work a few days after the strike.
• Read also: Preliminary agreement: suspension of strike on Lotto Quebec
The state-owned company has been going through a complete storm since the weekend, fueled by a strike by its professional staff, a computer problem and a change in the Lotto 6/49 format, Loto’s president and CEO summarized Wednesday. Quebec, Jean Francois Bergeron.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the Loto-Québec system update failed, paralyzing sales stations, so that Quebecers could no longer purchase or validate raffle tickets.
“This is the first time in 50 years that we haven’t been able to recover from a handling error,” Mr. Bergeron said in an interview with LCN.
Normally, the Loto-Québec crew should be able to limit the damage. However, computer scientists were on strike along with other professionals at the state-owned company, which prevented the technical problem from being resolved. Union workers finally returned to work on Wednesday after signing an initial agreement on Tuesday.
Loto-Québec estimates that its customers buy $2 million in raffle tickets per day, an amount that would not be entirely lost, believes Jean-François Bergeron, who finds it difficult to assess the losses incurred by Loto-Québec.
“There are many behaviors. There are people who will play online, scratch tickets too. We will see when we close the accounts. There may also be people who will buy two stakes,” the president and CEO said.
Lotto 6/49?
For their part, he will be able to resume the Lotto 6/49 drawings from next Wednesday, with the new lottery format.
Loto-Québec has decided to postpone publication of the new formula, the first of which will be withdrawn on Wednesday, due to a strike by its professional workers.
Also, other drawings of the Quebec Lottery that did not take place due to technical problems, such as La Mini, Banco or Québec 49, will resume in the coming days.
“No problem for draws, we will do it. No concern for integrity. Keep your tickets,” Jean-Francois Bergeron called.
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