Lotto booth operators are now being subjected to verbal abuse by customers after last week’s suspicious Play Whe draw according to the Online Gaming Agents Association of Trinidad and Tobago (OGAATT) president Dean Persad.
“They even calling us, operators and lottery vendors that we robbing them and alyuh thiefing we and those kinds of remarks,” he told Guardian Media.
He said adding salt to their wounds is the absence of what he called a “sensible answer” from the television station and the National Lotteries Control Board over what transpired.
During the 4 pm live TTT broadcast last week Tuesday, the full results for the Mega Ball draw were displayed on-screen even though the draw had just begun.
The graphic on-screen showed that there would be two white balls and then one red ball, although only one white ball was drawn at the time. The graphic was taken down quickly and the following draws subsequently yielded the same result that was put up previously on-screen.
TTT has since apologised for the error and assured the public of the integrity of the draws which have been broadcasted on the station for the last 28 years. It blamed the error on human error.
“There has been a lot of speculation, negative commentary and unfounded allegations circulating, particularly on social media, following the unfortunate error made by a TTT Graphics Operator (CG Operator) during the 4:00 PM Play Whe Draw #22596 last Tuesday, November 15, 2022.”
However, Persad said despite the assurances, all the explanations do not answer the fundamental question, “How was the result known before the live draw took place or before the live draw was complete?”
He believes the graphics operator is being used as a scapegoat for the incident.
