BCLC reports technical problems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars
Missing loyalty points, inflated slot machine jackpots among the issues that left the lottery corporation scrambling over past four years
VICTORIA — Mistaken jackpots, free slot machines and unpaid loyalty rewards are just some of the technical malfunctions, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the B.C. Lottery Corporation has filed with provincial regulators, according to a new list.
The Crown gambling corporation recorded 22 technical problems with its gambling machines and software over the past four years, according to a government list released to The Vancouver Sun. One of the most expensive problems involved $471,037 worth of missing loyalty rewards points BCLC was supposed to give frequent gamblers under its Encore Rewards loyalty program.
A “missed setting” within BCLC’s gambling software caused 2,898 players to not accumulate the proper bonus points for almost two years, until the problem was flagged last March.
Lottery officials had to comb through internal records to reconcile the missing points and send letters to affected players, according to the government’s Gaming Enforcement Policy Branch. BCLC ended up paying $518,141 in points, after adding a 10 per cent bonus for players. The loyalty program, which the lottery corporation uses to provide points and free plays to prolific gamers, also suffered privacy concerns in March after some players were able to see the credit balance and first name of other players on certain machines, according to government.
Software bugs in April led to $52,000 worth of unclaimed player points that BCLC kept because it said it amounted to an average of only 62 cents for each of the 82,000 players affected, and the program was still close to 99.5 per cent accurate.
“BCLC strongly believes in the integrity and functionality of all our slot machines and the Encore Rewards Program,” the corporation said in a statement.
“As with any technical environment, errors can occur. These numbers represent a very small percentage of the overall millions of transactions that occur in casinos each day.”
The list of technical problems was compiled after The Sun reported in November about a woman who won a $99,999.97 jackpot at a “Dragon Fever” slot machine in Penticton in early 2014 when the machine mistakenly awarded a prize worth 100 times the allowed maximum.
BCLC repaired 152 machines throughout the province to fix the flaw, though it did not tell the public at the time. The corporation said it recovered the money from the machine’s manufacturer.
BCLC also had different jackpot problems on three slot machines in Nanaimo and Prince George casinos in 2012, government regulatory data shows. Players were overpaid approximately $150,000 over five months because the machines were incorrectly set to provide jackpots of $5,000 instead of $250.
NDP gambling critic David Eby said while some computer software problems are to be expected given the electronic nature of modern gambling, he’s concerned about the time and cost to hunt down and fix them and, in some cases, redeem players. A recent audit of BCLC also flagged concerns that staffing levels and salaries within the corporation were growing at a larger rate than gambling revenue.
“Maybe one of the reasons for those increased costs is BCLC is paying their staff to fix these technical issues that should be fixed by the vendors,” Eby said. He said he’s also concerned the numerous technical problems appear to show BCLC doesn’t have a consistent policy on repaying players after errors.