This scandal has the potential to trump a lot of issues in the upcoming Ontario provincial election. Why? Because it has the potential to bring angry people to the polls who wouldn’t ordinarily vote;
[Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation], which until now was essentially left to oversee itself, was always able to find excuses not to take the simplest steps to make sure the public wasn’t being cheated. When asked why its retailers don’t have to undergo background checks before earning the right to vend lottery tickets, an OLG vice-president handed Marin’s investigators this ladleful of mush: “We don’t believe that’s in our responsibility area ? there’s human rights issues and all sorts of things. [There] might be very large issues for which we have just no responsibility.”
[…]
Marin found evidence that the issue of disproportionate lottery wins by insiders came to OLG’s attention as early as 2004. Its policies with regard to checking up on such wins were already loose; in one case, it handed $12.5-million to the sister of a store manager even though she initially tried to lie about the family relationship, backtracked about ownership of the ticket and couldn’t provide required information about where she had bought the ticket. But when OLG employees raised concerns about suspicions of retailer fraud, CEO Duncan Brown noted in an e-mail that as head of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, “I used to have to issue gaming licences to companies or individuals that I just knew with absolute certainty were dirty. I just couldn’t prove it. Sometimes you hold your nose.”
More – the Ontario government knew about the fraud for months.
David Caplan- would he be related to Elenor Lardass Caplan?
yup…son.
The government of Ontario wants this scandal to go away quietly. I wonder where all the lottery profits are actually going after they’re laundered through the saintly ‘social’ agencies?
Personal experience several years ago. Handed my ticket to have the clerk check it. He quickly exclaimed “wow, you won 10 dollars” and handed me the 10 spot. I asked to see the validation for my ticket, which he had quickly, too quickly, put in a drawer. He took it out, looked at it and said “Oh, sorry, you actually won $100.00” I got my money and also lodged a complaint with Manitoba Lotteries. Moral of the story, don’t take the clerk’s word ever. They should show you the validation, if they don’t, tell them you want to see it. Watch also for a quick switch before they hand it back to you. How difficult would it be for the clerk to tell you that you’d won $100.00 when actually it was $10,000? A lot of people would be so excited with the $100 win they’d take it and run and the clerk is left a much richer and happy camper. Luckily for me it didn’t work although the sum was low but the investigation found that 56 lottery terminal clerks collected winnings over $10,000.00 in Ontario. Yeah, right. Be ever on guard and keep you eyes on the validation ticket from the clerk’s hand to yours.
This explains the Beemers parked in front of the 7-11s and Mike’s Mart. I liked the Irish Sweepstakes better; at least it wasn’t a government sponsored fleecing.
I strongly disagree with you on this one. People have already forgot about the hydro one scandal and all the other rip offs the auditor caught at that time. This one is pretty much a done issue in most media outlets.
David Caplan- would he be related to Elenor Lardass Caplan?
Posted by: davie at March 27, 2007 11:10 AM
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Yes, and he’s just as stoooooopid.
As for the lottery scamming, to date people are pretty much shrugging their shoulders and lining up at the lottery terminal. We’ll see if that changes.
It just goes to show what happens when your have the wrong kind of folks in positions of power.
In BC they provid(ed) scanners at mall outlets for customers to check their own tickets. This reduces the load on the employees, boosts customer confidence and should therefore pay for itself.
I don’t know, I don’t think this will connect with the people, either.
The one issue I think Ontario should vote over is Caledonia. But it hasn’t had the media play it should have. Let’s see: emergency personnel saying we don’t respond to 911 calls in certain areas? The government refusing to follow a judge’s order? Rule of law gone in Ontario? To me, that’s the big issue. It will register in western Ontario, but whether it registers elsewhere is another story.
Will John Tory capitalize on this? Doubtful. He hasn’t even carved out a viable position versus McGuinty. In fact, I’m not convinced he’s a Conservative. Seems about as weak as the Conservatives are in England, who are more left than Labour.
As has been pointed out elsewhere in the blogosphere and the MSM, the easiest way to short-circuit all of this nonsense is to just check your flippin’ numbers online. The few times I buy tickets both my wife and I verify whether they’ve won anything online, and then we take it to a lottery POS to get redeemed. That way, the clerk knows that we know that it’s a winner and that we’ve checked it. If it was for a larger amount, we’d probably take it directly to a regional rep of the lottery corporation. If it was really big?
Hell, I’d just fly to the WCLC HQ myself and present the ticket in person. 😉
Trust, but verify.
Call me an old fuddy duddy, but politicians of all stripes have treated gambling as if it’s a source of wealth for their jurisdiction. The problems that come with gambling are brutally hard to deal with, and I’m skeptical that gambling does much for the economy or quality of life for most places, Nevada being perhaps an exception.
Canada would be better off without lotteries, VLT’s, and casinos.
I like Colby Cosh’s take on this in a recent column. You can’t feel much empathy for people stupid enough to pay volunatary taxes and then ask a retail clerk if they have a winning ticket.
People that stupid aren’t likely to represent a cohesive political reaction. They won’t know where the polls are or how to get there.
Well the President was “fired” Fri. after the report by Marin, and was eased out with a checque for $720,000.00. Now the 2-IC a mere $200,000.00 + per year flunky is going – what is his parachute worth? Anyway the hydro guy went for $3,000,000.00 – HEY ITS ONLY TAXPAYER MONEY!
Irwin,
I think you have it exactly right:
a) Tory isn’t a conservative.
b) He has no plans of his own, but instead will run a campaign that consists solely of him criticizing McLiar.
I expect McLiar to win re-election handily.
The OLG are in damage control mode. I just went to CTV web site and there is a large ad from the OLG that is entitled “OLG – Making it even better”
The ad links to the OLG website and lists its response to the ombudsman’s report.
The OLG knew this scamming was occurring and did nothing about it until the ombud report came out. NOW they decide its time to “make it better”
What a joke.
Very good Kate! You are correct, this cannot help the liberals in the least. It will turn some of the rabble against them and also it shows their inability to run various departments of the government. I know the OLGC is seperate but they should have oversight. Lastly, the scandal itself indicates that liberals will always defer to immigrants and minorities ahead of locals in any dispute in order to support their voting base.
no surprise here folks…I deal with convenience stores throughout eastern Ontario….lotto scams, bootleg smokes, contraband shades, labor code violations, health code violations….the list goes on and on….with virtually no enforcement(except local health authorities enforcing the age of smoking)….it has gotten progessively worse since chimpy mcliar has taken the reins in lala land…..they won’t even publicly acknowledge the native smoke fiasco(1 in 4 smokes in Ontario are illegal)
[deleted – what part of “stay on topic” do you not understand? If “reader tips” posts aren’t good enough for you, then find another blog. – ED]
Tory and Hampton are really giving it to Caplan in QP right now.
The guy is so slimey. He makes me sick.
Gee “Ed” I’m sorry. How silly of me, here I thought the topic was about scandals. I guess you aren’t supposed to link the words neocon and scandal, just Liberal and scandal.
Ok, instead I’ll post it on “Reader’s Tips” about the dirty filthy con party.
“Will John Tory capitalize on this?”
John Who?
Who needs lotteries? I’m going to make millions by helping out that Nigerian general’s widow who e-mailed me last week. No game of chance there! Guess you folks aren’t on the inside track to wealth like I am, though.
Nick Kasoff
The Thug Report
I can’t believe this – conservatives demanding more government oversight of private businesses? Don’t you trust those hard-working small business retailers who drive our economy? Shouldn’t the government continue to turn a blind eye so we can allow the market to correct itself?
If you double-check your Cole’s notes, TruthSeeker, you will find that the commenters here tend to be against fraud whether or not it comes from state organizations like the OLGC, or private business. Thank’s for playing, though.