The Irish National Lottery had an embarrassment last week when their Bank Holiday promotion draw went awry.

As part of a special draw for the August Bank Holiday weekend, the Lottery were offering a prize of a Jaguar XK convertible as an additional prize to the person who won the jackpot.

Unfortunately, due to apparent “human error” the National Lottery Company informed anyone who checked their numbers on-line and had matched any combination of numbers that they had won the car, even if the money value of the prize was as little as €5.00. They hadn’t, but the story still made headline news. Some outlets report that disgruntled non-winners are considering legal action.

It is important to have validation checks in place on reports and publication of data, particularly where that data would be of value or could be relied upon to the detriment of another person.