lotto scratch card win, retailer won't pay?

positivenote

Hi all,
got a few scratch cards for my birthday a few months back and won 8euro and 2 scratch cards. So I put the winning cards in my wallet and forgot about them until yesterday. I went to 'cash' them in and the retailer said that they couldn't because they weren't registered when they were first sold and I would have to return to the shop I bought them in.
I havent a clue who even gave them to me to be honest, but what is this all about? I know its only few euro and a couple of scratch cards but if one of them had more substantial winnings on it would I be left empty handed.
Any suggestions on what to do would be welcomed..
Thanks

Virtanen

Cash them in a different shop? No offence, but it's not rocket science

teaholic

Contact the lottery and they can tell you where it was bought and they contact the retailer it was originally sold to and get them to activate it, then you can go to any store and cash it then. When the book isn't activated it can't be cashed, it was probably an over sight.

jahalpin

You probably picked the worst possible time to have to contact the National Lottery as the National Lottery operating licence was transferred to a new operator at the end of November

I'm not sure if they would be liable for the debts of the old operator.

I think the agents had to sign new agreements with the new operator over the last few weeks and the existing agreements were terminated with the switchover to Premier Lotteries Ireland Limited

greasepalm

does it not say cash in winning ticket within 90 days of draw date so should be still viable,when tickets are bought they are bar code swiped before passing to you but new kid behind counter may not have known?

braddun

are they for the national lottorey or rehab lottery


rehab lottery you have to bring them back to shop that sold them to you

the shop stamps its name on the back

rehab lottery is crap very few winners


call the national lottery or the rehab to see how to cash them or email

L1011

Old tickets are still honoured within the standard time rules; the terminals are still the same (for now, they're being replaced) - the new operator took over pretty much everything from the "old" operator - who are still part of the consortium.

Some retailers are completely up themselves about not cashing tickets they didn't sell - there's been threads about shops stamping tickets (Lotto, not Rehab) for instance. Just try another retailer.

Ticket designs are being completely changed to make it obvious what's old and new, the scratchcards are now changed and the ticket slips are going to be green soon.

greasepalm

they are green big bloody ticket waste of paper,have had about 4 ,out 2 weeks i think?

dudara

Contact the National Lottery and they should help sort this out.

BrianJD

Every shop has to activate a roll of cards before they are sold. This is a security feature which means a stolen delivery or even the rolls a shopkeeper has in storage are really no good to you. The shop that sold the tickets forgot to activate them and no other shop will get confirmation of a win (and payment from the lottery to them) until it's activated. A different shop would be unable to activate as each roll is assigned to a terminal once ordered. In short, go back to original seller!

timewilltell

See the problem is that the book of tickets, of which your ticket came from, weren't activated before they were put out for sale in the shop.

I used to work in a shop, basically the cards come in books of tickets, before you can put them on display (in the little box thing) the retailer has to scan the book through the lotto machine. This activates them. It is to prevent any winning tickets being cashed if the book was taken in a robbery. So when you gave in your ticket the other day, the machine would have read your ticket as not being activated so then the shop cannot give you your winnings as the machine will not issue a receipt for them to claim the money back.

I don't know if that helps!

ScouseMouse

BrianJD wrote: »

Every shop has to activate a roll of cards before they are sold. This is a security feature which means a stolen delivery or even the rolls a shopkeeper has in storage are really no good to you. The shop that sold the tickets forgot to activate them and no other shop will get confirmation of a win (and payment from the lottery to them) until it's activated. A different shop would be unable to activate as each roll is assigned to a terminal once ordered. In short, go back to original seller!

timewilltell wrote: »

See the problem is that the book of tickets, of which your ticket came from, weren't activated before they were put out for sale in the shop.

I used to work in a shop, basically the cards come in books of tickets, before you can put them on display (in the little box thing) the retailer has to scan the book through the lotto machine. This activates them. It is to prevent any winning tickets being cashed if the book was taken in a robbery. So when you gave in your ticket the other day, the machine would have read your ticket as not being activated so then the shop cannot give you your winnings as the machine will not issue a receipt for them to claim the money back.

I don't know if that helps!

EXACTLY this. Dont take it personally, its a security feature to stop skangers attacking the post office vans. The shop has to register the delivery. Then when the book is opened and put on sale, they register this as well. Bottom line? They forgot!

Try again tomorrow. You will not be the only one affected.

positivenote

thanks for the replies, trying gain will probably have the same result if the tickets haven't been originally activated to be sold?
theres no way of me finding where they were originally purchased as they were a bday gift from a few months back and I can't remember from who as a few mates gave me tickets in cards...

ScouseMouse

No, you dont understand. The shop which sold them will have other customers like you. Once they are aware of the issue, it takes seconds to activate the book. It may be done already.

if you try again and its the same, ring 01 836 4444. They can advise the agent to sort it.

berger89

positivenote wrote: »

Hi all,
got a few scratch cards for my birthday a few months back and won 8euro and 2 scratch cards. So I put the winning cards in my wallet and forgot about them until yesterday. I went to 'cash' them in and the retailer said that they couldn't because they weren't registered when they were first sold and I would have to return to the shop I bought them in.
I havent a clue who even gave them to me to be honest, but what is this all about? I know its only few euro and a couple of scratch cards but if one of them had more substantial winnings on it would I be left empty handed.
Any suggestions on what to do would be welcomed..
Thanks

Hey! I work in a shop so I know what this is.
So basically, when the shop gets sent the big batch of tickets, they have to "validate" the book on the lotto machine. It's a security thing more than anything. If there was a robbery and the tickets were stolen, they would be no good to the thief because the tickets haven't been registered/validated.

So, the shop you wanted to cash it in. When they scanned it, a message would have appeared on their machine saying something like: "Ref K. Book not validated. Please contact hotline 1800 xxx xxxx" or something to that effect. That shop can't do anything for you. Its the shop you originally got the ticket in-->they didn't validate the book on their machine before they sold it. Its no good to any other shop. The original shop needs to put the ticket through their machine first.

Kerry Gooner

This was a frequent occurrence when I worked in a store however puzzling thing in this instance is that the tickets are several months old. Raises the possibility that they were stolen as if legitimate why have no other prize winners from this particular book not already seen the book activated

dudara

Kerry Gooner wrote: »

This was a frequent occurrence when I worked in a store however puzzling thing in this instance is that the tickets are several months old. Raises the possibility that they were stolen as if legitimate why have no other prize winners from this particular book not already seen the book activated

That would be major concern as well. But the only way to know for sure is to contact the National Lottery.

ScouseMouse

Several months old? Er, you could be out of luck. On lotto tickets, you have 90 days from the date of the draw to claim your prize, then you forfeit it and it goes back into the pot.

Scratch cards have a game number on them. When the game finishes, its published in the paper and you have so many days to claim your prize. I wonder if you have hit the time limit?

MrsMcSteamy

The simplest thing to do would have been for the retailer to ring up with the reference k to the phone number that would appear on the machine and give lotto headquarters the ticket number to go back and check the retailer who sold the ticket.

This is what I do every time it happens and return the ticket to the customer and tell them to try again tomorrow when the book is more than likely now activated.

AgileMyth

MrsMcSteamy wrote: »

The simplest thing to do would have been for the retailer to ring up with the reference k to the phone number that would appear on the machine and give lotto headquarters the ticket number to go back and check the retailer who sold the ticket.

This is what I do every time it happens and return the ticket to the customer and tell them to try again tomorrow when the book is more than likely now activated.

Retailers don't always have time to deal with other shops mistakes.