Lotto Bullseye underpays winners

New lottery Bullseye had its first draw last night along with its first hiccup - underpaying 249 prize winners.

NZ Lotteries said a technical issue temporarily affected some prize payment calculations.

Acting chief executive Warren Salisbury said NZ Lotteries became aware of the system error at 11.30am today and immediately stopped Bullseye tickets being checked through Lotto terminals.

The errors detected were:

- Division Four: 25 prizes of $109 were paid out as $65

- Division Five: 224 prizes of $23 were paid as $14

In total winners were underpaid by $3116.

NZ Lotteries apologised and said it would work with retailers to ensure customers were paid their full winnings.

"Any customer who believes they are affected by this underpayment should go back to the Lotto store that paid them their original prize money and we will arrange to have their prize payment topped up," Mr Salisbury said.

Online buyers will have their accounts updated automatically.

- NZPA