November 17, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina Education Lottery officials say a problem that caused the misreading of some tickets has been fixed.

The State newspaper reported Monday that the problem affected a limited number of instant tickets that were incorrectly validated by the gaming system from Nov. 5 through Nov. 13.

Officials last week blamed a new computer system for the problems. Some winning scratch-off tickets had been counted as losers and some losing tickets had been counted as winners.

Lottery director Ernie Passailaigue said the lottery had changed contractors and installed new computers to allow retailers to sell tickets 24 hours a day, a first for lottery sales since they began in 2002.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)