Winning the lottery is a dream everyone yearns to fulfill as it could be the golden ticket to a better life. However, it is especially crushing to think that you’ve won with the biggest cash pool of your life, only to have it snatched away moments later.
Yesterday (April 11), Sports Toto came under heavy fire over a typo that caused the winners to be denied of their grand prize money.
During the live result update, 8755 was chosen as the winning number, but it was later changed to 8515, thus disqualifying those who betted on 8755.
Unsurprisingly, this fiasco sparked widespread outrage, with many netizens questioning the results’ authenticity. There were even rumours around about Sports Toto deliberately changing the numbers for their own benefit.
In response to the controversy, Sports Toto issued a public statement to clear the air regarding the issue.
In the statement, they said that the typist in charge had entered the wrong number (8755) and changed it to the correct number (8515).
Sports Toto also assured that the draw was conducted fairly and transparently, where the entire process was done in full view of the public. In addition, three members of the public were chosen to form a panel of judges in witnessing and verifying the drawing of the winning number.
The typist, Wong Ai Li, even issued a public apology of her own today.
Wong admitted that she was responsible for entering the results that day and said that she would be more careful in the future.
Nonetheless, the public did not take too kindly to Sports Toto’s apology and continued to condemn them for what was considered a “rookie mistake”.
Many said that Sports Toto should double the grand prize money as they believed the company could afford such losses.
Others urged Sports Toto to consider hiring more typists and improving their existing SOPs.
On the other hand, some couldn’t resist the opportunity of making jokes out of the crisis.
One netizen came up with a suggestion that might help Sports Toto bounce back from their PR nightmare.
“What Sports Toto needs to do is to publish the cash prize of both numbers, calculate the difference, and then donate the difference to charity to save the company’s reputation.”
Cover Image via The Malaysian Reserve, fb/戴雪花
Source: Sports Toto
Editor: Raymond Chen
Proofreader: Sarah Yeoh
