Samoa National Lotto players are demanding an explanation after two different draws were live streamed on social media on Saturday night with different winning numbers.

The players took to social media to express their frustration and are seeking answers from Samoa Sportslotto on why there were two different live streams of the same draw on Saturday. 

Lottery games are currently regulated by the Government’s Gambling Control Authority and the draw done every Saturday is live streamed through the Samoa Sportslotto Facebook page at 6.30pm. 

But the draw No. 635 for Saturday 9 April was live streamed twice with the footage not exactly the same. Both videos had the same draw number but came up with two different results. 

Even the police officers, who are always present during the draw and assist to check and verify the winning numbers, were different. The first live streamed video had female police officers while the second one had two male police officers.

The first video had the number 22 as the bonus while the second live streamed video had number 1 which has sparked frustration and among players in Samoa. 

Samoa Sportslotto immediately removed the first live stream video from Saturday's draw featuring the two female police officers and the number 22 as the bonus. 

An official, who is familiar with the weekly draw and spoke on condition of anonymity, said due to limited working hours brought on by the lockdown the Saturday draw video was pre-recorded earlier and got mixed up with an old video resulting in two draws going to air.

This meant staff of the Gambling Control Authority were already aware of the winning numbers before they were released to the public later that evening. The current jackpot for Samoa National Lotto is $122,484. 

National Lotto were given the approval to sell Lotto tickets under Alert Level 2 State of Emergency Orders, after it was shut down since the nationwide lockdown in March after detection of Samoa's first community transmission.

Attempts by the Samoa Observer to seek clarification from the C.E.O. of the Gambling Control Authority, Tuala Siaki Tuala have been unsuccessful as of press time.

However, the management of Samoa Sportslotto issued a statement through its Facebook page on Sunday evening apologising for the "inconvenience" that its live streamed draw caused its players on Saturday.

"To all our values customers we bring our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused from our Live streamed draw on Saturday, 9 April 2022 and Draw from the 12 February 2022 due to technical issue errors," read the statement. 

"We apologise for the inconvenience you might have encountered while playing our game all technical failures have been eliminated and they won't happen again."

According to the Gaming and Control Act 2017 (30) on Lotteries draw, "Unless exempted by the Chief Executive Officer, a lottery must be drawn in the presence of two (2) members of police, and at least one of the policemen present must hold a rank that is not lower than senior sergeant".

Section (31) of the Act says that the "drawing of lottery must be open to the public, and the time and place of that drawing must be advertised or notified in a manner approved by the Chief Executive Officer."

Furthermore, on official results under the Act, "A licensee must, immediately after the draw, prepare a certified statement setting out the results of the draw, and must provide the statement to the Chief Executive Officer within 48 hours of the lottery being drawn.

"(2) The statement prepared under subsection (1) shall be the official result of the draw once it is approved by the Chief Executive Officer, and the prizes must be paid or distributed in accordance with that result."

Jarrett Malifa contributed to this report.