LOTTO FURY AS MISS OUT ON £1M
Top prizes hidden in wins list ROMA THUG JAILED
FIVE gamblers missed out on becoming millionaires due to a balls-up by the National Lottery.
Bosses at operator Camelot have been slapped with a £1.15million fine for failing to publish a full list of raffle prizes after a Lotto draw.
A temporary page on its site hid raffle prizes worth £5.4m in a Lotto Olympic Medal draw from 2016.
It meant the five missed out on the lifechanging amount of cash as they were misled into thinking they should throw away their winning tickets.
Of the 88 available prizes from the raffle, 11 were hidden from players. They were worth £1m, £100,000, and £50,000.
Camelot, which runs the Lotto, attempted to contact the affected players but several missed out and the cash has since been given to charities.
The firm has been fined by The Gambling Commission for a string of mistakes, which also included a fault on its mobile app.
Richard Watson, the commission’s executive director, said: “Camelot has taken a number of steps to rectify the issues and given us assurances they now have the right processes in place to prevent recurrences.
“It is crucial the National Lottery is run fairly, safely and with integrity. We will continue to hold Camelot to account.”
In another failing, players using the mobile app were presented with incorrect onscreen messages when checking their winning tickets with a QR scanner. Camelot put it down to a “software coding error”.
A spokesman added: “We have accepted the historical licence breaches identified, provided voluntary undertakings and will make a payment to National Lottery Good Causes in lieu of a financial penalty.
“While we have always sought to run the National Lottery to the highest possible standards, we accept that at the time of these incidents our standards in certain areas weren’t as rigorous as they should have been and for that we are sorry.”
The Star Says: Page 6 AN Italian football fan has been jailed for two and a half years following an outbreak of violence at the Liverpool v Roma Champions League semi-final which left a Reds supporter seriously injured.
Daniele Sciusco, 29, from Rome, admitted violent disorder at Anfield on April 24.
Preston Crown Court heard that Irishman Sean Cox, 53, was still in a serious condition with a head injury although Sciusco, left, was not directly involved.
Recorder of Preston Judge Mark Brown said: “It’s important to stress you are not being sentenced for the dreadful attack on Mr Cox, but it did occur during violent disorder of which you were a part.”