2 lottery employees on leave after mistaken drawing

ROCKY HILL, Conn. – Two employees of the Connecticut Lottery are on leave after a mistake with the drawing for a special New Year’s game.

The Connecticut Lottery Corp. said this week that two unidentified employees were placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated. The lottery and the state Department of Consumer Protection are both investigating.

The lottery says that tickets were sold with six-digit codes, starting at 100,001 and ending at 314,601.

When the range of numbers was entered into a random number generator for Monday’s drawing, an employee entered the range as 100,001 to 214,601, leaving 100,000 numbers out.

The lottery plans to hold another drawing, but has not yet set a date. Winners from both drawings will be honoured.

Prizes range from $100 to $1 million.