Hundreds of retailers have been locked out of their lottery service following connection problems to a new network, The Grocer has learned.
It is understood at least 300 retailer terminals have been affected, including those of supermarkets and independents.
The loss of service is understood to be due to the decommissioning of a third-party satellite that powers the terminals.
In April, Allwyn contacted over 11,500 National Lottery retailers to inform them of the network maintenance work required to avoid service disruption from 1 July.
While it had “successfully migrated” the vast majority of retailers by repointing them to a new satellite, a “small number” had experienced a temporary loss of service from 1 July, Allwyn said.
In some cases, Allwyn was unable to complete in-store work due to access constraints, including not being able to gain agreement from the retailer. In others, poor 4G signal strength required a fixed-line connection instead, which takes longer to install. It is understood Allwyn is working with third-party suppliers to prioritise visits to stores most at risk of disruption.
Costcutter retailer Andrew Brace, based in Wormley, said he had been without a lottery service for 13 days while waiting for a fixed line to be installed.
“We have no idea when it’s getting fixed,” he said. “Allwyn is keeping me in the dark. We’ve had this store for 41 years and my customers trust me as their local community retailer. Each day it goes on, I’m letting more people down. It’s giving me a bad name.”
An Allwyn spokeswoman said: “A small number of National Lottery retailers experienced a temporary loss of service from 1 July due to the decommissioning of a third-party network satellite.
“We’ve been working closely with retailers since April to move them to a new connection, and we’re pleased that the vast majority were successfully migrated ahead of the deadline. We expect a substantial number of the remaining stores to be reconnected by the end of this week.”
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