NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Gtech Holdings Corp., the world's biggest operator of national and state lotteries, has cautioned governments worldwide about a possible flaw in its operations in Taiwan, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Gtech cited an error in its computerized system that could potentially allow someone to discern which scratch tickets are winners before they are scratched, the Wall Street Journal reported. A spokesman for the West Greenwich, R.I.-based company told the paper it was an "operational and technical issue that is currently being diagnosed."

But when it comes to this game of chance, the Taiwanese government isn't taking any chances. It has issued a complete recall of its scratch tickets, saying it is possible to discern winners from the bar codes on unscratched tickets and that it suspects outsiders already have cracked the algorithm on some scratch ticket bar codes, the report said.

A corrupt ticket salesperson that knew the codes theoretically could pick out the winners on a sheet of tickets and cash them, selling only the losers to the general public.

Gtech also told the Journal recalling the Taiwanese tickets was a decision to err on the side of caution, and added that the company didn't recommend recalls in other places.

Data from the most recent fiscal year available – ended June 30, 2001 – showed that governments sold $27.5 billion of scratch tickets worldwide, or 21.6% of $125.6 billion in total lottery sales, according to David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial lotteries.