A NEW lottery rule saw one winner wait weeks to receive their cash and the operator blame the delay on them.
Andrew Leese, from Staffordshire, has vowed to never play the National Lottery again despite winning £1,500 in March.
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The 61-year-old was ecstatic following the win, but things turned sour after he waited three weeks for his winnings to arrive.
Leese said the process involved to collect the winnings involved him going online to fill in a form and send in photos of the front and the back of the ticket.
Then the company emailed him a barcode that he took to the Post Office who scanned it and send off a label to the National Lottery.
But Leese said the process didn’t run smoothly and he had to ring the operator three times before he could get a barcode.
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The aggrieved winner said after he managed to do that he didn’t hear anything for a fortnight.
He then went on holiday and expected to find the cheque on his return.
Instead, Lees said he found the lottery had had to put in a claim against Royal Mail after it allegedly lost the ticket.
Leese told StokeonTrentLive: “I don’t trust the National Lottery any more. I have done it from day one, and I’ll never do it again while this company is running it.
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“I have won before on the lottery, and I’ve gone into the Post Office the next day and got my money. There were no issues there at all when Camelot had it. But when I ring them [Allwyn], I just get fobbed-off.
Camelot, who have been in charge since 1994, have been replaced by Allwyn, as chosen by the Gambling Commission.
I won £10,000 on scratchcard but ‘new Lottery rule’ saw me left with NOTHING
The handover on February 1 marks the first time the lottery has changed hands since it was launched nearly 30 years ago.
Leese said: “Why this company has been given the licence when they have no infrastructure in place I don’t know.”
A spokesperson for Allwyn Entertainment said: “We’re very sorry to hear of Mr Leese’s concerns and have been in touch with him with an update.
“This is a new claims process we’ve had to introduce following the Post Office’s decision to no longer pay National Lottery retail prizes between £500.01 and £50,000.
“As a result of it being new, we’ve been experiencing higher volumes of players contacting us and some initial delays to players receiving their prizes.
“We’ve since increased the number of colleagues to assist with claims – which is helping us send out prizes more quickly – and are continuing to work to make improvements to the process.
“For example, we recently started a trial where anyone winning under £1,000 no longer needs to send in their winning ticket to us to help speed up the process. We’d like to reassure anyone affected that they will receive their prize.”
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Royal Mail said: “We can confirm the letter was delivered on Monday 29 April.”
The Sun has approached the Royal Mail and Allwyn for comment.
Allwyn: The UK’s new national lottery operator
CAMELOT, who have been in charge since 1994, have been replaced by Allwyn, as chosen by the Gambling Commission.
New operator Allwyn changed the procedure for wins between £500 and £50,000 after the Post Office pulled out a 900-branch deal last month.
Post Office branches were the only shops where cheques for those sums could be given to winning punters — but they have now been blocked.
Instead, the operator, which took over from Camelot at the start of last month, insists winners verify their numbers online or over the phone before sending the ticket by post for inspection.
Allwyn is telling winners it wants tickets sent in for checks by its security operations team.
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