‘Greek company can manipulate the State Lottery by digitally adjusting lottery tickets’

It would be possible for employees of a Greek company to manipulate the State Lottery for their own benefit. The company Intralot has access to the lottery file and can make changes to it without being noticed.

That is what De Volkskrant says on the basis of former employees of Intralot. The Greek company manages systems for the State Lottery and therefore has access to the file in which lottery numbers are stored. According to the newspaper, employees can adjust this file without further intervention from the State Lottery. The company also has the option of printing lottery tickets at its Greek headquarters.

Because there is no control, the Greek employees can replace lots and put them in their own name. Because no log files are kept and the number of lots in the file remains the same, the manipulation is not detected. The Staatsloterij does have data on the regional sale of lottery tickets, which means that a disproportionately high number of prizes in a certain region will eventually stand out, according to De Volkskrant.

In order not to stand out, Intralot employees would have to manipulate a limited number of tickets. According to De Volkskrant, however, it is not clear whether the option to adjust lottery tickets has actually been abused. Intralot has been managing the systems of the State Lottery since 2010.

Earlier, the Gaming Authority announced that it would investigate the practices at the State Lottery. The research focuses on ‘the security of files and systems around the drawing process’. Among other things, irregularities are said to have been discovered in recent lotteries. For example, in the King’s Day raffle, more tickets were drawn than were sold. It therefore seems plausible that the vulnerability was indeed abused within Intralot.