Battle to restore lottery lines

Lottery players missed out on a rollover chance

Engineers are fighting to restore National Lottery lines in the West Midlands after workmen cut vital communication cables.

In the run-up to Saturday's rollover jackpot, only two-thirds of machines in the region were working.

A Camelot spokeswoman said: "We now have 704 retailers back on-line of the 1,160 who were affected."

The problem was caused when a third party contractor cut through a communications cable

Camelot spokeswoman

Engineers battled to get as many machines as possible back on-line in time for Saturday's rollover draw.

The cable break left virtually the whole of the West Midlands unable to process lottery tickets.

It was initially thought the problem could take up to 36 hours to repair.

More than 1,100 newsagents and supermarkets in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and Dudley were originally affected.

Satellite links

Customers were advised to call the National Lottery Line on 0845 910000 for information about where their nearest operating ticket seller was.

Some players were able to get to retailers in unaffected areas or find one that used a satellite link.

The spokeswoman added: "We have been told by BT that the problem was caused when a third party contractor cut through a communications cable.

"That affected 40 distribution nodes which in turn handle 1,160 retailers."

She added that BT expected the full system to be restored by Sunday afternoon.