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Virginia ABC says data glitch caused rare whiskey lottery issues
Right now, a lot of whiskey drinkers in Virginia are awfully fired up. It’s because of the results of a recent state-run lottery that’s supposed to give residents a fair shot at rare bottles of liquor. FOX 5’s Josh Rosenthal explains what went wrong.
Virginia ABC is honoring the results of last month's limited whiskey lottery despite the uproar it's caused in a local Facebook group.
Four rare types of whiskey from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, including an 18-year-old Sazerac Rye, were available during the April 19 – 23 drawing.
Photo Credit: Spirited Virginia/Facebook
The chances of winning one of those bottles of Sazerac Rye, which can sell for over $1,300, was 1 in 739.41, according to the Commonwealth's alcohol and beverage control agency.
Whiskey enthusiasts had a 1 in 48.68 chance of winning a bottle of George T. Stagg bourbon, a 1 in 125.27 chance at the Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye, and a 1 in 179.02 opportunity of getting their hands on a bottle of William Larue Weller.
But somehow, Virginia ABC says two lottery entrants won a bottle of all four of the limited drinks. To add to the suspicion, 50 people won three of the high-value products, and over 200 people won two of them.
The agency said there were 978 total winners for 1,313 available bottles of the top-shelf BTAC drinks. Winners were notified on May 12.
"I'm really curious to see the location of all these winners," said one member of the Spirited Virginia Facebook group. (Click to see full-size image)
"How can one email entry hit on multiple bottles in the lottery?" another commenter wrote. "My friend hit 3 of the 4 BT releases. Shouldn't you limit to one bottle per person??" (Click to see full-size image)
In a statement to FOX 5, the Virginia ABC said the April BTAC lottery resulted in a "statistically abnormal" number of entrants winning the right to purchase more than one product. (Click to see full-size image)
"In cases where multiple items are offered through a single lottery form, individual customers may enter any or all of the available drawings on that particular lottery offering. The drawings for each lottery product is separate, and each lottery drawing is conducted independently," the statement reads.
The agency said it conducted the lottery drawing following the procedures established and used for previous drawings. And a member of the authority's internal audit division was on site to witness the process.
A Virginia ABC spokesperson told FOX 5 on Friday that a subsequent review by the internal audit department identified an issue in the sorting of the lottery entry data in the software.
"The manner in which the entries were sorted contributed to the statistically abnormal results," the spokesperson said. "As a result of these findings, the authority is adding additional layers of review to the lottery sorting process."
The agency said a new electronic lottery system is in the testing phase.
Check out Virginia ABC's lottery terms and conditions here.