Frustration mounts as players struggle to place their bets under the new licensed operator.
Picture: iStock
National Lottery players have taken to social media to express their frustration with the new lottery operator, Sizekhaya.
South Africans accustomed to placing bets via banking apps experienced challenges after several apps encountered technical difficulties.
Here are the apps experiencing issues
Standard Bank, African Bank, and Tyme Bank were among the banking apps where most users were unable to place bets.
Users either saw a greyed-out Lotto section in their app or a notice informing them that the bank was moving its services from the previous Lotto operator to Sizekhaya.
“During this time, Lotto purchases and related services may be temporarily unavailable,” a notice to bank users read.
Meanwhile, other banking apps have also undergone changes, leaving many players confused and voicing their concerns.
The Citizen has reached out to Sizekhaya and, at the time of publishing, had not received a response regarding the issue.
More changes to be aware of
Ticket prices have increased, catching players by surprise, with PowerBall costs doubling in what many consider a steep hike.
One social media user said, “What is going on with PowerBall? I am not paying R15 for a ticket; soon we won’t afford to even play.”
PowerBall tickets now cost R10, while Lotto tickets remain at R5. Lotto numbers have also been reduced from 58 to 52, and from 1 to 50 for PowerBall.
Sizekhaya has described this as an attempt to improve players’ chances of winning.
Terminology has also been tweaked, with PowerBall Plus now PowerBall Xtra and Lotto Plus 2 now Lotto 5 Max. Daily Lotto no longer has the Daily Lotto Plus draw.
Delays in the transfer of historical winning data
National Lottery players have previously expressed frustration at being unable to claim their winnings from the previous operator, Ithuba.
Detailed information has not yet been made available to Sizekhaya, creating an obstacle to verifying and paying certain prize claims associated with tickets purchased before the licence transition.
Sizekhaya says it is ready and able to honour all legitimate winnings once the necessary information becomes available.
“Those most affected by this situation are people who purchased National Lottery tickets in good faith and who may now be unable to immediately access winnings because information required for verification is unavailable,” Chief Operating Officer at Sizekhaya, Fundi Sithebe, says.
“Our commitment is very simple. If a ticket is valid and a prize is due, we want that winner paid as quickly as possible. We are ready to do exactly that. But we are unable to do this without historical records required to complete the verification process.”
