National Lottery website and app both crash after power failure ahead of £5m Lotto draw tonight
- Customers trying to access the website are told online services are ‘unavailable’
- The power outage took place in the Watford area, an town northwest of London
- On Twitter, The National Lottery apologised for any inconvenience caused today
The National Lottery website and app have gone down following a power failure – just hours ahead of tonight’s £5million draw.
Customers attempting to access the site are greeted with a message saying online services are ‘temporarily unavailable’.
The outage comes ahead of a Lotto draw this evening with eager customers now likely to be thwarted when trying to buy a ticket. However, despite the problems there are currently no plans to cancel the draw.
Customers attempting to access the site are greeted with a message saying online service are ‘temporarily unavailable’
Users of the National Lottery app were greeted with this message to inform them of problems
This graphic depicts the problems of the National Lottery website during the last 24 hours
The National Lottery explained via Twitter that it was due a power failure in the Watford area
The National Lottery tweeted earlier: ‘Due to a power failure in the Watford area this morning, some of our services have been affected – including our website and Contact Centre. We are working to get services back up and running as quickly as possible and are really sorry for any inconvenience caused.’
As of 1.25pm the problems were still evident as the National Lottery provided an update of: ‘Please bear with us everyone. We’re still working to get our website and Contact Centre back up and running after this morning’s power failure.’
Anxious customers have bombarded the National lottery’s official Twitter account with enquiries, desperate to know when the website will up and running again.
Staff have been unable to estimate when the system will be back online, telling players: ‘I can’t give you an exact time, sorry. We’re working as quickly as we can to resolve the issue.
‘Some stores are unaffected, however we strongly advise that players only purchase National Lottery products as part of an essential shop. We’re working on a resolution now, please bear with us.’
More to follow