Shop owners across the UK have been left with “declining sales, disgruntled customers and disillusioned staff” after Allwyn rolled out a major systems upgrade designed to modernise the operation of the National Lottery.

The investment in technology had been a requirement of Allwyn taking the reins of the Lottery last year, however the overhaul has reportedly left machines “riddled with glitches,” with shop staff forced to bear the brunt of complaints.

“The company, owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komárek, has encountered repeated problems as it attempts to fulfil a pledge to modernise the technology that underpins the lottery,” reported The Telegraph.

“Allwyn says it is 40 percent of the way through a planned rollout of 30,000 new terminals.

However, multiple shop owners who spoke to The Telegraph said they were facing issues with the technology.”

Post Office operator Richard Trinder described multiple issues processing tickets, telling the paper “what happens is you put it through the machine and then it just doesn’t do anything. All we get is ‘the circle of death.’”

Glasgow convenience store owner Vikas Sas added his newly installed Wave terminal is “not able to sell any tickets.”

“It’s not able to verify any tickets – there’s nothing at all. Customers are obviously annoyed because we can’t verify if they have a win.”