A National Lottery player alleges that she has been left “out of pocket” after her winnings failed to materialise.
Gemma Murray plays the lottery every month with her mother, who won £30 last October after three of her numbers were chosen.
But Ms Murray, from Kirkby, claims that she still has not received the money despite being told she would receive it by early November after withdrawing her winnings from her account on the lottery app.
“Every month when we get paid, me and my mum put the lottery on for the month,” the mother-of-one told the Liverpool Echo. “She won three numbers – £30 – so I withdrew it from the account and we were told we’d get it by 2 November, but we still haven’t had it.
“I’ve spoken to the lottery and they said the bank could trace it, but the bank can’t find any trace through any of my statements and National Lottery keep fobbing me off. They told me last Friday it must be there but the bank has no evidence of it.”
However, the National Lottery says the money has been successfully returned to her account, and that WorldPay, the company which handles its debit card transactions has confirmed this.
Ms Murray’s bank would need to contact Camelot, the company which runs the lottery, in writing to trace the payment, so that they can to escalate the matter further with WorldPay, it said.
“I've asked my bank a few days [ago] and they've assured me they can't do that so [I’m] literally going round in circles,” she told The Independent.
“It’s been an absolute nightmare, we’ve been back and forth and I’m constantly calling them and they are palming me off,” Ms Murray said previously.
“I must’ve called 100 times and I’m at the point now where it’s not even the money, it’s the principle.
“Imagine if it was £800, I do the hot picks so what if it was my three numbers? We’ve had no problems in the past but it’s doing my head in. I’ve had to give it my mum so now I’m out of pocket.
“My point I’m trying to make to them is surely they have a better way to deal with these issues.”
A spokesperson for the National Lottery said its customer care team has tried to contact Ms Murray a couple of times over the past few days, but has not been able to reach her.
They continued: “In the very small number of cases like this that we see (given we process tens of millions of transactions), the funds are finally located at the player’s card-issuing bank on each occasion.”
