Minnesota's verification system caused delay in $2.04B Powerball drawing, officials say
MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota lottery officials say the state's verification system caused the delay in reporting the latest Powerball numbers.
"After unprecedented lottery interest, Minnesota's lottery sales verification system caused a processing delay on Monday, Nov. 7," the Minnesota Lottery said in a statement. "The delay was necessary to confirm the Powerball drawing could be conducted securely and accurately. At no time was the integrity of the process compromised."
The latest numbers were supposed to be revealed Monday night, but the announcement was delayed until Tuesday morning.
Officials with the Minnesota Lottery said Thursday that it had an issue with its two-tiered verification system, which is operated by outside vendors. The lottery said the system is designed to make sure that every purchased lottery ticket has a fair and equal chance of winning.
The Minnesota Lottery said one vendor is responsible for printing tickets and recording each transaction to verify each ticket is authentic; another vendor is responsible for checking the work of the first. Every night, before a drawing can happen, the two systems must "balance" - meaning that every data entry must be transmitted between the two and match perfectly, the Minnesota Lottery said.
On Monday night, the two systems couldn't communicate in real time so there was a delay in getting them to balance, the Minnesota Lottery said. Officials worked on the issue for hours, then realized that data from the entire day's sales needed to be reprocessed, which took another 5 1/2 hours.
"While we were disappointed to delay the national drawing, the integrity and accuracy of our games always take priority," the Minnesota Lottery said in a statement, adding: "At no time was the sales data or the game compromised."
The Minnesota Lottery apologized, but added: "Any error in the drawing would have been worse than the actual delay."
Some Minnesotans were still taking that chance Tuesday morning. Even after Powerball officials delayed Monday night's drawing, claiming an unnamed state needed more time to complete security protocols. Turns out, that state was Minnesota.
Minnesota Lottery says its sales verification system caused a processing delay after an unprecedented interest in the lottery. Bobby and Steve's Auto World employees say they've seen that interest first hand, but haven't ever seen a drawing delayed.
"I thought it was kind of sketchy honestly," Bobby and Steve Auto World employee Leroy Fry said. "Who knows, but I thought it was kind of weird."
After a three month streak, a single ticket bagged the record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot.
The lucky ticket was sold in California, that person will take home $2.04 billion in installments or $997.6 million in a lump sum cash.
The winning numbers for the $2.04 billion jackpot were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56 with a Powerball of 10.
MORE: How far could that Powerball jackpot money go?
One person in Florida won $2 million and 22 other people snagged $1 million prizes, but no one from Minnesota.