Midweek lotto postponed to tonight

“Technical problems” have been blamed for the National Lottery’s decision to delay its midweek draw from last night to tonight.

The forced move, one of the first times it has happened in the history of the lottery, is a blow to new owners Premier Lotteries Ireland just a year after it bid €405m to operate the licence for the next 20 years.

It issued a statement yesterday evening in which it said: “The National Lottery can confirm that there were technical problems this morning following a service outage related to the 3G telecommunications infrastructure provided by Telefónica.