Johannesburg - Persistent technical problems that result in lottery customers unable to bet continue to dog Ithuba, the recently appointed national lottery operator.
Various lottery customers in Pretoria and Joburg contacted Independent Media newspapers on Wednesday complaining about faulty terminals.
Ithuba admitted to technical glitches at some of the lottery terminals, but said the problems were minor.
Ithuba spokeswoman Anda Ngani said the operator had beefed-up its technical reaction team substantially to solve the problem.
“We are aware of pockets of glitches experienced in different places on the retailer footprint which are immediately resolved once the issue is escalated to us,” she said.
Describing the problems as minor, Ngani said: “Sometimes you find it is a case of somebody punching in a wrong password as retailers are still learning how to use the new terminals.”
She assured customers that the company was trying everything it could to improve services in retailers in order to eliminate errors. She said “field agents will visit various retailers to attend to technical glitches and to also educate retailers on how to operate the new terminals”.
Ngani added: “The terminals are different from those used by Gidani, so we have come in with a whole new system.”
In an attempt to respond speedily to queries, she said Ithuba had established a “war room that fields and escalates queries and requests to the right channels and personnel with the organisation”.
Ithuba rolled out 6 000 terminals when it took over from Gidani on June 1, according to Ngani.
She said the company planned to roll out 3 000 additional terminals by end of this month, to bring to 9 000 the total number of terminals across the country.
On the shortage of betting slips, Ngani said customers could also use Ithuba’s manual system to bet. She urged lottery customers to enquire in stores about this service.
“When at a retailer, a player can play their favourite lottery game by using the bet slips or alternatively, retailers can punch in the numbers directly on the terminals,” she said.
Despite the problems, Ngani said Ithuba was doing well.
“We are only four weeks in operation but we have already paid out a total of R100 million in winning prizes. This shows that people are playing the lottery.”
Contact Ithuba’s helpline at 0800 484 822 between 6am and 11pm.
The Star