National Lottery glitch leaves players fuming as draw delayed for hours

The disruption occurred at approximately 8pm during the livestream from London, just as the £10.5million rollover jackpot numbers were being selected.

Viewers watching the draw unfold saw their screens suddenly cut to a technical difficulties message before the crucial bonus ball could be revealed.

More than 200 people reported experiencing an outage during the live broadcast, which ended abruptly without completing the full draw sequence.

The interruption meant ticket holders across the country were left uncertain about potential winnings for several hours whilst officials worked to resolve the issue.

Frustrated players took to social media to express their anger at yet another technical failure disrupting the lottery draws.

One exasperated ticket holder posted on social media: "Here we go again another lottery draw another technical fault this is happening nearly every draw and is totally unacceptable."

Another player quipped: "The way my luck is it I bet the National Lottery draw that has been delayed is because it drew my numbers out."

Many attempted to check results by repeatedly refreshing the National Lottery website, only to find no updates available.

Some criticised the disruption for "ruining Saturday night tradition" as players were forced to wait late into the evening for confirmation of winning numbers.

The YouTube livestream typically used to broadcast draws also became unavailable due to the technical problems.

Lottery operator Allwyn issued an official statement acknowledging the malfunction.

A spokesman said: "Due to the bonus ball not dropping during tonight's Lotto draw, we have paused the draw.

"It will resume as soon as possible with an alternative draw machine and under the supervision of an independent adjudicator."

The company assured players that tickets would remain valid and results would undergo independent verification before publication.

"We expect to complete tonight's Lotto draw and publish the verified results on national-lottery.co.uk later this evening and apologise for the delay," the spokesman added.

This marks the second major technical disruption in recent weeks, following a similar malfunction that affected the EuroMillions draw on October 10

That earlier incident also prevented thousands of players from viewing winning numbers in real time.

The recurring technical issues come despite Allwyn announcing a major technology overhaul in July.

The company, which assumed control of the lottery from Camelot when their licence expired in January 2024, invested over £350million in upgrading systems that dated back to 2009.

The modernisation programme included installing new lottery terminals and implementing what Allwyn described as a "meticulously planned and thorough systems integration and testing programme of work".

The company continues to operate from Camelot's former headquarters in Watford under its ten-year contract.