Satellite failure halts lottery ticket sales

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The Associated Press

OMAHA — The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $127 million. But some Nebraska Lottery players can't buy a ticket.

According to Nebraska Lottery, communication between the Nebraska Lottery and retailers was interrupted early Sunday after a communications satellite failed.

"We regret the inconvenience to our retailers and customers," acting Lottery Director Jim Haynes said in a news release Sunday. "This is an example of circumstances beyond anyone's control, and every effort is being made to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."

The satellite in question, called the IA-7 satellite, began to fail shortly after 2 a.m. The satellite, launched in July 1999, hosted more than 50 transponders — one of which was owned by a technology provider for Intralot, the Nebraska Lottery's Lotto equipment vendor.

Nebraska Lottery had found a new satellite provider by Monday morning and was dispatching crews across the state to recalibrate the satellite-receiving equipment of each of the state's 950-plus lottery retailers, a state lottery official said.

"What we're trying to do is get the larger retailers up and running first, then get to the others as quickly as possible," said Heidi Weaklend, marketing director for the Nebraska Lottery.

The lottery hopes to have all lottery retailers back online by 8 a.m. Wednesday, Weaklend said. The next Powerball drawing is Wednesday night.

The outage has affected all three Lotto games offered in the state: Powerball, Nebraska Pick 5 and 2by2.

The state lottery said all tickets sold before the outage, including for Saturday's $110 million drawing, will be honored.

Meanwhile, lottery vendors could not offer tickets as they waited for a visit from the lottery technicians.

"They're going to be mad, I'll tell you that right now," said Marsha Youngs of her regular customers at the shop where she works in Lincoln.

A number of the customers come to the U-Stop for the sole purpose of taking their chances at the lottery. The shop had turned away about 30 to 40 prospective lottery ticket buyers since Youngs began her shift at 3 p.m.

Adam Jensen, a worker at an Anderson Food Shop in Omaha, put the number of customers turned away at his store at 50.

"A lot of people have been wanting to buy them today for some reason — perhaps because the pot's so big," Jensen said.

Jensen said customers have been a little miffed but not too angry.

He himself is a lottery player, but he's unworried by the delay.

"I can just wait," he said.