Keno ticket holders finally claim winnings after two day suspension due to 'technical' glitch

Keno ticket holders can now claim their winnings for the first time since Thursday, after a technical glitch suspended the sale and validation of the lottery.

At the 10am Keno draw on January 3, it was discovered the winning numbers for several other upcoming draws were simultaneously selected.

Keno is drawn four times a day at 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 6pm. Tickets start at $1 and offer individual prizes up to $250,000.

All the numbers for the 1pm, 3pm and 6pm draws on Thursday, January 3, and the 10am draw on Friday, January 4, were selected all at once at 10am on Thursday.

After discovering the issue, Lotto NZ suspended the sale and validation of all Keno tickets in store and online on the MyLotto website at 10.40am Thursday.

Lotto NZ's head of communications, Kirsten Robinson, assured the integrity of the Keno lottery had not been compromised and there was no police investigation.

"Yesterday morning we identified an unexpected timing issue following our 10am Keno draw that caused a small number of Keno draws to take place earlier than expected," Robinson said.

"As a precaution, we suspended sales and validations of Keno tickets while our team investigated the cause of this technical issue."

The following receipt was being printed to Lotto retail outlets, explaining why they can't sell Keno tickets.

The MyLotto website still has the sale and validation of Keno tickets suspended after a technical glitch on January 3, 2019.

Because no tickets were sold after the four Keno draws were prematurely selected on Thursday at 10am, all tickets already entered into these draws still remain valid to win prizes.

Robinson also assured this technical glitch was an "isolated issue" that had never occurred before in Keno, or affected any other of Lotto NZ's games.

During the 2017/18 financial year, more than two million New Zealand Keno players won more than $19 million in prizes.

One player also became Keno's first millionaire during the last financial year, after winning $1m on a single ticket.