Canada: Lottery retailers banned from buying Tickets.

by Barry ORegan | October 29, 2007 at 04:50 am

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British COlumbia Lottery Retailers are banned from buying tickets from their own outlets has many perturbed, with many who feel they are seen guilty of cheating winners whose tickets they verify and some pocket winnings from unsuspecting lottery winners. It will soon spread to the rest of Canada as Ontario is now considering this move when it was found that retailers won more in lotteries than their customers, making the odds almost impossible to estimate.

Some feel this is a good idea, as the Odds of winning are Stratospheric, and the Odds are even Astronomical if the retailer cheats you out of your winnings.

TORONTO -- Ontario lottery retailers are railing against a proposal to ban them from buying and cashing in tickets in their own stores, saying it unfairly portrays them as the villains in the province's lottery scandal.

"Retailers will be upset that we're the ones being painted as the bad guys in all this," says Chris Wilcox of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. tried to impose the rule on retailers in August before backing off in the face of the association's vocal opposition.

In an electronic bulletin sent to several "key" accounts, the provincial government agency notified merchants that, starting Sept. 17, lottery retailers and their staff would no longer be allowed to purchase or redeem personal tickets at their own retail sites.

Wilcox says he expects to hear shortly whether the lottery corporation will go forward with the rule. If such a ban is brought in, Wilcox said lottery merchants will voice their discontent.

SCATHING REPORT

The proposed rule, similar to one already in place in B.C., follows a scathing report into the corporation's handling of fraud and theft issues.

Ombudsman Andre Marin found "unscrupulous" lottery retailers in Ontario collected at least $100 million in fraudulent claims since 1999, partly because the OLG was "hopelessly conflicted" and ignored allegations of fraud because it was "fixated on profit rather than public service."

Marin, however, did not advocate banning retailers from buying tickets.