A LOTTO winner has been left with lighter pockets after waiting weeks to get his cash.
John Farrugia, 69, won £800 in a scratchcard in February, but is yet to receive his winnings.
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John said: “I’m being passed around departments when I call to try and redeem the money I won fair and square.”
He added: “For a lot of older people it’s difficult.”
The retired builder from Surrey has been caught up in a new verification system for winners brought in by the scratchcard lottery operating company.
Allwyn has told winners it wants them to send in tickets for it to complete checks by its security operations team.
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The new lotto operator took over from Camelot at the start of last month and has introduced new rules.
Post Office branches were the only shops where cheques for those sums could be given to winning punters — but they have now been blocked.
Allwyn insists winners their verify numbers online or over the phone before sending the ticket by post for inspection.
A spokeswoman for Allwyn said: “This is a new claims process following the Post Office’s decision to no longer pay National Lottery retail prizes between £500.01 and £50,000.
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“As a result, we’re experiencing a high volume of players contacting us.
“We’re sorry for any delays and have increased the number of colleagues to assist players with their claims, which is helping them get their prizes more quickly.
“We’d like to reassure any affected players that they will receive their prizes and to remind them that prizes of up to £500 can still be paid out in store.”
Other changes have also been brought in with the switch of operator.
From February 1, punters have not been able to buy more than 10 scratchcards at any one time with online retail partners.
Allwyn has also sought to bring in highly-anticipated plans for new draw-based games, but these have been delayed until 2025.
The Camelot era of lotto
From February, bosses at Allwyn will take over the running of the big money game, which has turned thousands of lucky players into millionaires.
Since the Lottery’s launch under Camelot on November 19, 1994, a staggering £178billion has been spent on tickets, scratch cards and online games.
That is enough to fund the NHS for a full year or repair our roads for well over a decade.
The new operator will not be making any immediate changes to games, with favourites such as Lotto, EuroMillions, Thunderball, Set For Life, scratch cards and online instant wins still offering prizes.
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