The National Lottery website and app experienced a major outage on Thursday morning, July 16, 2026, due to a wider Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that also affected other websites relying on the cloud computing platform.
Outage Timeline and Impact
According to data from Downdetector, a website that tracks user-reported errors, problems began just before 9:00 AM BST. Reports peaked at 9:30 AM, with thousands of users unable to access the National Lottery site. Within a 20-minute window, 1,221 reports were filed. While the number of reports has since decreased, the outage has not been fully resolved.
The outage is linked to AWS, an on-demand cloud computing platform that provides servers, storage, and databases to businesses. Many websites and services lease infrastructure from AWS, meaning the ripple effect could cause errors on other sites throughout the day.
Official Response
The National Lottery acknowledged the issue on social media, stating: "We are aware that some players are currently unable to access The National Lottery website and app - this is due to a wider ongoing AWS outage. We're working with AWS to resolve this as quickly as possible. We ask players to try refreshing the website or app later on today."
It remains unclear how many users are affected or whether the outage impacts all National Lottery customers. The resolution timeline is also unknown.
Broader Implications
This incident highlights the dependency of many online services on AWS. As businesses continue to rely on cloud infrastructure, outages at major providers can cascade, disrupting a wide range of platforms simultaneously. Users of other services that depend on AWS may also experience issues until the problem is resolved.
