National Lottery Thunderball drama as ‘redraw’ and money back demands made after ’embarrassing’ fault
National Lottery hopefuls dreaming of a big Thunderball win were left in disbelief tonight (December 13) after a fault with the machine led to chaos. A live stream of the results aired on YouTube[1] this evening, unveiling which lucky numbers were needed in order to win the cash prize. All was going well for the machine which managed to shuffle and select five numbered balls - 25, 26, 35, 37 and 38[2].
However, things quickly came to a halt when the machine was unable to select the all-important Thunderball. After moving over to the second machine, the camera appeared to show the balls spinning around at break-neck speed for a while before the arm which picks out the ball finally sprung into action. However, close-up shots showed no ball had been selected in somewhat comical scenes.
The surreal moment brought the live stream to an abrupt end with the National Lottery announcing that the results will instead be available on its website later. A statement on the live stream read: "Due to a technical fault, we cannot stream this live draw. Please check National-Lottery.co.uk later for the draw results."
People watching the live stream unfold vented their anger at the draw being unable to be completed. It led to many demanding the draw be started over again. Angela Travis said: "Have to redraw surely?" Elizabeth Wignall had similar thoughts, saying: "Should be redrawn."
Plenty of others made similar suggestions, simply saying "redraw" as the stream was brought to an end. RazSux joked: "Everyone in chat should be compensated!" Meanwhile, Malcolm Coombes said: "That's embarrassing." And Tom Silversurfer commented: "Give me my money back."
Click HERE[3] for more on the National Lottery.