VICTORIA 鈥� Mistaken jackpots, free slot machines and unpaid loyalty rewards are just some of the technical malfunctions, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the BC Lottery Corporation has filed with provincial regulators, according to a new list.
The Crown gambling corporation recorded 22 technical problems with its gambling machines and software over the past four years, according to a government list released to The 91原创 Sun.
One of the most expensive problems involved $471,037 worth of missing loyalty rewards points BCLC was supposed to give frequent gamblers under its Encore Rewards loyalty program.
A 鈥渕issed setting鈥� within BCLC鈥檚 gambling software caused 2,898 players to not accumulate the proper bonus points for almost two years, until the problem was flagged last March.
Lottery officials had to comb through internal records to reconcile the missing points and send letters to affected players, according to the government鈥檚 Gaming Enforcement Policy Branch. BCLC ended up paying $518,141 in points, after adding a 10-per-cent bonus for players.
The loyalty program, which the lottery corporation uses to provide points and free plays to prolific gamers, also suffered privacy concerns in March after some players were able to see the credit balance and first name of other players on certain machines, according to government.
Software bugs in April led to $52,000 worth of unclaimed player points that BCLC kept because it said it only amounted to an average of 62 cents for each of 82,000 players affected, and the program was still close to 99.5-per-cent accurate.
鈥淏CLC strongly believes in the integrity and functionality of all our slot machines and the Encore Rewards Program,鈥� the corporation said in a statement.
鈥淎s with any technical environment, errors can occur. These numbers represent a very small percentage of the overall millions of transactions that occur in casinos each day.鈥�
The list of technical problems was compiled after the Sun reported in November about a woman who won a $99,999.97 jackpot at a 鈥淒ragon Fever鈥� slot machine in Penticton in early 2014 when the machine mistakenly awarded a prize worth 100 times the allowed maximum.
BCLC repaired 152 machines throughout the province to fix the flaw, though it did not tell the public at the time. The corporation said it recovered the money from the machine鈥檚 manufacturer.
BCLC also had different jackpot problems on three slot machines in Nanaimo and Prince George casinos in 2012, government regulatory data shows. Players were overpaid approximately $150,000 over five months because the machines were incorrectly set to provide jackpots of $5,000 instead of $250.
The BC Lottery Corporation owns and controls all gambling equipment in the province, with private companies operating casinos and other gambling establishments using the government鈥檚 equipment.
BCLC provides almost $1.2 billion a year in profits to core government services. It is also required under law to report any technical problems to the government鈥檚 Gaming Enforcement Branch.
BCLC alerted government in November of problems in slot machines at River Rock Casino in Richmond and Edgewater Casino in 91原创, where a player was able play using Encore Rewards free play points, without any points being deducted. The feature has since been disabled, BCLC said.
Other technical problems since 2010 include some gambling machines that could not validate certain dollar bills, slot machines slipping into offline mode, credits disappearing on slot machines at Hastings Park and two $10,000 prizes in Kamloops in 2013 that showed up as 鈥渕achine disabled鈥� errors. BCLC said it tracked down the winners and paid them.
NDP gambling critic David Eby said while some computer software problems are to be expected given the electronic nature of modern gambling, he鈥檚 concerned about the time and cost to hunt down and fix them and, in some cases, redeem players.
A recent audit of BCLC also flagged concerns that staffing levels and salaries within the corporation were growing at a larger rate than gambling revenue.
鈥淥ne of the major issues in the BC Lottery Corporation audit is their expenses are increasing and costing more and more of the profit from B.C. casinos intended for public programs, and maybe one of the reasons for those increased costs is BCLC is paying their staff to fix these technical issues that should be fixed by the vendors,鈥� Eby said.
He said he鈥檚 also concerned the numerous technical problems appear to show BCLC doesn鈥檛 have a consistent policy on repaying players after errors.
