Ticket sales: Lotto-Quebec returns to normal on Thursday

Unable to sell a single draw lottery ticket since Sunday, Loto-Québec expects things to return to normal on Thursday as its IT employees return to work after a few days of strike.

• Also Read: Agreement in principle: Strike at Loto-Québec suspended

The state-owned company has been facing a perfect storm since the weekend, Loto’s president and CEO summarized on Wednesday due to a strike by its professional staff, a computer problem and a change in the Lotto 6/49 format. – Quebec, Jean-Francois Bergeron.

During the night from Saturday to Sunday, an update of the Loto-Québec system failed, resulting in the paralysis of the sales terminals, so that Quebecers could no longer purchase or validate draw tickets. .

“This is the first time in 50 years that we haven’t recovered from a processing error,” Mr. Bergeron said in an interview with LCN.

In general, Loto-Québec staff should be able to limit the loss. However, the computer scientists, along with other experts from the state-owned company, are on strike, preventing the technical issue from being resolved. Unionized workers finally returned to work on Wednesday after signing a tentative agreement on Tuesday.

Loto-Québec estimates that its customers buy $2 million in draw tickets a day, which is not a total loss, according to Jean-Francois Bergeron, who thinks it is difficult to estimate losses incurred by Loto-Québec.

“There are many behaviors. There are people who go online to play, to scratch tickets. We will see when we close the accounts. There may be people who buy two shares,” said the president and chief executive officer.

And Lotto 6/49?

For their part, the Lotto 6/49 draws will resume from next Wednesday with a new lottery format.

Loto-Québec has decided to postpone the deployment of the new formula, whose first draw will take place this Wednesday, due to a strike by its professional workers.

Also, other draws for some Quebec lotteries that did not take place due to technical problems, such as La Mini, Banco or Québec 49, will resume in the coming days.

“There is no problem with the draws, we will do them. There is no concern about integrity. Keep your tickets,” said Jean-Francois Bergeron.