The National Lottery has apologised for scratch card errors that saw €180,000 in prizes not included in games.
It says that four top prizes were not included for players to win in three games offered since 2014.
While two of the affected scratch cards are no longer on sale, the third - a Congratulations game on sale since since April - has been withdrawn from stores following the discovery of the issues.
The prizes worth €180,000 are said to account for 1.36% of the total prize funds over the three scratch card games.
The issues were discovered following a recent internal review of all products offered over the past five years.
According to the lottery operator, the omissions were caused by human error.
It says that funds for good causes were not adversely affected by the errors, and the regulator has been informed.
In a statement, National Lottery CEO Andrew Algeo said: “We are deeply sorry for these errors which should have been fixed before the games went on sale.
"We are committed to ensuring that our players are always treated fairly."
He confirmed that new controls are in place to ensure a similar situation does not happen again.
He added: "We would like to reassure our players by pointing out that the total amount involved is less than 0.01% of all our prizes of the last five years.
"The total value of the missing prizes will now be made available to our players through a special draw.”
Regulator response
The Regulator of the National Lottery, meanwhile, said it was notified of the situation last month.
The regulator said in a statement: "Upon being notified, my immediate priorities were to ensure that the Operator would find and implement a solution to return the value of these prizes to Players at the earliest opportunity and that the Operator introduced effective measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
"I fast tracked my considerations of a proposal from the Operator to return the omitted prize money to Players by way of a New Years’ Special Draw, entirely funded by the Operator. This proposal was approved.
"I also determined that the affected scratch card game still on sale should be withdrawn."
Officials will now examine whether any breaches of the licence or National Lottery Act occurred.
According to the National Lottery, the special draw will be held on January 6th and include 180 prizes of €1,000.
The operator has also detailed the three impacted scratch cards:
- In Congratulations Game 186, which was on sale until July 2019, there should have been four top jackpot prizes of €50k, when in fact there were two such prizes.
- In Congratulations Game 223, which has been on sale since April 2019, the website and rules correctly state that there is one €50k top jackpot prize in the game. However, there should have been two €50k top jackpot prizes to align with the approved prize structure. Because of this omission, the game is being withdrawn from sale.
- In Diamond Bingo Doubler Game 125, which was on sale until February 2017, there should have been four top jackpot prizes of €30k, when in fact there were three.
