The 'Chance' lottery glitch reaches the court: 'The balls were inserted in the wrong order'

The glitch in the 'Chance' lottery of Mifal HaPayis has reached the court: two requests to certify class action lawsuits were filed today, Sunday, to the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court against Mifal HaPayis. In one of them, the applicant claims serious failures in the conduct of one of the 'Chance' draws.

According to the request, in draw number 53365, held on Friday, August 7, 2026, the lottery balls were inserted into the machines in the wrong order. It is claimed that the glitch led to the results announced in the live broadcast and presented to the public in the graphic display being completely incorrect. Subsequently, Mifal HaPayis admitted the human error and published the determining results, which were different from those originally broadcast.

As part of the request, it is claimed that this conduct caused actual damage to the participating public. Many participants watched the live broadcast, checked the tickets they purchased based on the incorrect results, and rushed to throw away the tickets that appeared to be non-winning. After the publication of the updated results, those participants discovered that they had permanently lost the ability to know whether they held a winning ticket and to claim the prize money.

As part of the lawsuit, filed through Adv. Yair Shafran, the court is asked to determine that the draw is void from the outset and that it cannot be validated retroactively just by correcting the result. The request asks Mifal HaPayis to refund all ticket purchasers in that draw the participation fees they paid, and also to compensate them for the distress and loss of potential winnings.

In another request to certify a class action filed also today by another applicant through Adv. Ofir Amar and Moti Levy, it is claimed that the lottery host announced a wrong result in a live broadcast, which was also displayed in the official graphics. It is further claimed that only later did Mifal HaPayis announce the glitch and change the lottery result retroactively so that it would match the symbols printed on the balls. It is claimed that as a result of this change, an absurd situation was created: tickets that appeared in real-time as winning became losing, while tickets that were presented as losing and which some participants had already thrown away or destroyed became winning tickets retroactively.

The request to certify a class action seeks to certify three groups of victims: participants who threw away winning tickets because of the misleading presentation, participants whose winnings were cancelled following the change of results retroactively, and all participants in the draw who demand their money back because the draw was not conducted according to the regulations.

Adv. Ofir Amar and Adv. Moti Levy stated: 'It is impossible that the damage caused as a result of a glitch that occurred due to the responsibility of Mifal HaPayis will be placed on the participating public.' Adv. Yair Shafran added: 'One message in real-time would have prevented all the damage.'

Mifal HaPayis stated in response: 'The incident was caused by a specific human error during the operation of the draw. Upon discovering the error, we acted immediately to publish a clear and detailed clarification to the general public. In accordance with the lottery regulations, the determining result in the draw is the shape appearing on the ball that was drawn and the number appearing on it. To date, most of the winnings in this draw have been redeemed as usual. Mifal HaPayis is examining on an individual basis a small number of inquiries from customers who claim they won and do not have the lottery ticket in their possession, against the actual ticket purchases at points of sale and the data on the redemption of winnings. We regret the incident, are investigating the circumstances in depth, and are taking all necessary measures to ensure that such a case does not recur.'