Yep - an app I look after at my job does this if demand is too high. It is a way of managing server load by basically blocking traffic at the edge.

The iOS app seem to handle queries ok

Mind you, it was $35 million, so I imagine a fair few people were looking to buy a ticket.

Looks like it wasn't struck tonight though. What would it be now? $38m? $40m?

quickymart:

Mind you, it was $35 million, so I imagine a fair few people were looking to buy a ticket.

Looks like it wasn't struck tonight though. What would it be now? $38m? $40m?

That site used to always go down around the time of the draw and afterwards.Looks like they took a long time to work out a solution.

CYaBro: How high does it have to go before it becomes a must win?

I think 50

Buying concert tickets this week I noticed the same thing.  I studiously waited for the sale time and sat down 1 minute earlier ready to go, only to find that a virtual queue has opened at some time prior without any notification and all I could do was join the queue, which by that stage was over 1,000 deep. 

Buying concert tickets is a form of gambling now isn't it? 

CYaBro: I’ve seen a cloudflare page about a queue to access Geekzone a couple of times now too!
Anyone else seen that?

Yes - last couple of days (accessing from Canada)- either cloudflare queue page, or just times out.

The irony of if they make it like the MIQ system where they shuffle the queue at the cut off point:   Entering a lottery to buy a lottery ticket...

Ok, they're not gonna do that, but the thought still tickles my fancy.