Sean Fegan with the cheque he received from the National Lottery
A local lottery player has hit out at the new system in place at the National Lottery after being told he had won nothing on what was a winning ticket.
As a result of the technical problem with the machine at the shop that he checked his numbers in 41-year-old Sean Fagan ended up spending €3 more on claiming his winnings than his actual prize of €5.
Sean thought he might be in line for a pay out after realizing some of his numbers had come up in the draw on December 17th last.
However, the Dundalk man – who now lives in Louth Village – told The Irish Daily Mirror at the weekend that he was furious that his small win ended up actually costing him.
Sean told the Irish Mirror: “I always do the Lotto every Monday.
“I get my Daily Million and EuroMillions tickets and spend €18.50 every time.
“I saw a couple of my numbers come up so I went down to the shop and they checked it on the machine there twice.
“It kept coming up blank and he just said, ‘Sorry you’ve won nothing there”, but I knew I had some of the numbers.
“When I got home I called the Lotto and they said they would call me back. I checked the internet and I saw that I had won something so I called them again and they said to send it in writing.”
Hoping he had won a sizeable sum, Sean sent off his ticket and waited patiently for his Lotto payday.
But he was left severely disappointed when he got a cheque for just €5. Sean said: “I haven’t even bothered to cash it yet. It cost me more to get it than it’s worth.
“Between going down to the shop, calling the Lottery twice and sending off the letter, it must have cost over €8.”
Sean added he’s angry he was initially told he had won nothing at all.
He added: “The Lotto said it could have been a problem with an old machine or maybe teething problems with a new one.
“It’s not about the €5 though. I never heard anything reported anywhere about problems with the machine.
“It’s OK for me but what if my ticket had been worth €1,000 and I had been told I’d won nothing? I could have lost out on a fortune.”
The news comes after last Wednesday’s draw had to be postponed 24 hours due to technical issues.
Local users are advised to double check their tickets while the gremlins are sorted.
