Holiday Cash Add-A-Play Ticket Holders to be refunded Purchase Price

Any lottery player who holds a Holiday Cash Add-A-Play ticket depicting nine tree symbols, which was purchased on Dec. 25, 2017 between 5:51pm until 7:53pm will be reimbursed the purchase price of this ticket. The South Carolina Education Lottery (SCEL) Board of Commissioners voted to reimburse the purchase price paid by each Holiday Cash Add-A-Play ticket holder bought on Dec. 25, 2017 on or after 5:51pm because these tickets were produced or issued in error. This decision is required by South Carolina Code Section 59-150-230(C)(3)(a) which provides that prizes arising from a ticket produced or issued in error must not be paid. Before making the decision the tickets were produced or issued in error, SCEL retained Gaming Laboratories International, LLC (GLI) to conduct an independent, impartial analysis. We appreciate players’ patience during this independent investigation. The results of this analysis revealed coding errors by SCEL’s former computer gaming vendor, and the vendor’s inadequate quality assurance testing that would have discovered these errors prior to deployment of this game. These actions caused approximately 71,000 plays to be erroneously produced, issued and printed with nine tree symbols, which were incorrectly recognized as a $500 winning play. Regrettably, these errors by the former vendor led loyal players to mistakenly believe that they held winning tickets. While SCEL is mindful of the magnitude of this decision on its players, any other decision would not comply with the law. To seek the refund of the purchase price of the tickets, a player should mail the original Holiday Cash Add-A-Play tickets (no copies or other reproductions will be processed for reimbursement) purchased on or after 5:51pm on Dec. 25, 2017 to this address: S.C. Education Lottery, P.O. Box 11039, Columbia, SC, 29211-1039. Include your name and return address. SCEL will refund the purchase price for each returned ticket and reimburse the player for postage up to the amount of first class USPS postage for the ticket(s) submitted to SCEL. Since these reimbursements will require manual processing, we ask that players mail in all tickets to avoid wait time at the Claim Center. Requests for Holiday Cash Add-A-Play refunds must be received by SCEL no later than Jan. 7, 2019.