WINNIPEG -- For a moment, it appeared she'd lost her chance at $25 million -- well before the contest closed.

A technical fluke led "winning numbers" of Western Canada Lottery Corp.'s (WCLC) Millionaire Life contest to hit the corporation's website Saturday, long before the scheduled Feb. 28 draw.

"That's not right. My first reaction was (to wonder) 'What kind of lottery is this if the numbers are up and they're still selling tickets?,' " said Portage la Prairie resident Wendy Twiss.

"If they've already determined what the winning numbers are, why buy a ticket?"

Twiss, who purchased three $10 tickets for the Millionaire Life draw, was shocked when it appeared to end early, as the draw promises to generate winning numbers from purchased tickets.

The process would guarantee a winner of the top prize, worth $1 million annually for 25 consecutive years.

But WCLC said the posting was a mistake made when an employee pushed one wrong button.

'PROTOTYPE PAGE'

"We did a test prototype page for the draw and one of our staff unlocked the page and put it on the website for about nine hours," said Matheson. "It was a human error."

When a computer prompt asked if its user would like to "unlock" the template, the staff member should have hit the "no" option, but mistakenly hit "yes," said Matheson.

He said the numbers were online from about 2:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday but removed that afternoon.

"(The numbers) were just entered to see how much space is required on the page," said Matheson.

"We do regret the error and apologize for any confusion."