Premier Lotteries Ireland, which runs games like Irish Lotto, EuroMillions and Daily Million in the Republic, released a statement confirming the news, “Indications are that this morning’s technical issues were as a result of a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack affecting our communications networks. The issues were resolved by the National Lottery’s DDOS protection systems, limiting disruption and restoring all operations within two hours.”
The statement assured players that their personal data and the integrity of the draw were not compromised at any point. An internal investigation is ongoing, with the country’s National Lottery regulator also requesting a report into the incident.
Premier Lotteries Ireland has suffered a number of technical setbacks since it took over the contract to run the lottery in 2014, the worst of which saw the postponement of the Irish Lotto draw on Wednesday 4th February 2015 until the next day, the only time in the game’s history that it has not taken place on the correct date. On that occasion, telecoms provider Telefónica was blamed, with various sources accusing the firm of not properly backing up the system, leading to the failure of 3,500 lottery ticket terminals in the lead up to the draw.
Last night’s draw went ahead as planned, despite the disruption, and the Irish Lotto results were 3, 6, 17, 23, 27 and 29 with Bonus Ball 5. No one matched all six main numbers, meaning Saturday’s jackpot will be worth €14 million, the highest the top prize has reached since Saturday 26th March 2011 when two players shared €14,037,236. Irish Lotto tickets are on sale now online and from authorised retailers.
