Disruptions have dogged B.C. Lottery Corp. in recent months, but BCLC isn’t saying much because of the election
Things haven’t been going all that smoothly for the B.C. Lottery Corp. in recent months.
Some of that has to do with the switch to new retailer terminals and self-serve kiosks across the province starting in late May, a monumental tech project that was bound to have rollout glitches.
The self-service machines in pubs have been unable to take cash and coin for weeks, and all BCLC has said is that it is working with the vendor to fix the problem. In some recent cases, the terminals weren’t taking debit cards either, rendering them largely non-functional.
And waiting times to talk to customer support earlier this week were very long after a significant number of players reported they couldn’t sign in to play at the lottery app.
However, Postmedia’s questions about the recent problems were not fully addressed because government communications departments aren’t talking about non-essential issues.
“During the provincial election and interregnum period, government is in a caretaker mode and all Government of B.C. communications are limited to critical health and public safety information, as well as statutory requirements,” said a BCLC spokesperson.
Of course, there’s going to be a financial hit from the disruptions. BCLC said in its 2024-25 service plan that it expected as much.
It noted income projections for this year were lowered to account for “a minor disruption in lottery terminal sales during the rollout of the lottery terminal replacement project (approximately 3,400 terminals across the province) which was delayed from the prior fiscal year.”