Social media vents frustrations at My Lotto app failure

Saturday, 29 February 2020

New Zealand's social media was abuzz with excitement and frustration on Saturday night after the draw for the country's biggest ever jackpot was announced.

While two lucky Aucklanders were basking in wins of a cool $25 million each, many players vented their frustration at being unable to access the winning numbers on the My Lotto app.

A message on the company's website read: 'We are experiencing high demand due to the Must Be Won jackpot. Sorry if you're have trouble logging in or accessing pages, please try again later.'

This is the message seen by app users on Saturday night.

Many app users were not impressed with having to quell their anticipation of discovering if they were one of the pair of winners.

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Players vented their frustration at being unable to access the winning numbers on the My Lotto app.

* Lotto players threaten boycotts**

'Ridiculous with all the millions you make you need to get your act together. You are letting your punters down,' one Facebook user wrote.

Queues were out the door at the Richmond Night'n Day on Saturday.

Another queried about the competence of My Lotto's communications service provider. 'My Lotto is down again. Who is your IT company???'

'I literally was logged in on my lotto app before lotto was drawn went back to check my tickets and I've been logged out. Systems down so I'll have to check later,' another wrote.

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'Yes it sucks I was just playing the demo games & it automatically logged me out,' a user responded.

Some users saw the funnier side of having their dreams dashed, joking about having to apologise to their bosses for submitting premature resignations.

Others hoped the winners would share their good fortune.

Lotto New Zealand spokesperson Marie Winfield said My Lotto had experienced heavy demands on Saturday evening as people were checking their numbers.

'We have an enormous amount of people, very heavy traffic on My Lotto tonight. People are just really excited trying to check their tickets so as people finish checking theirs, more people will be able to check them.

'It's not completely crashed, we can only handle so many at once. If unsuccessful try back later this evening or try again the morning.'