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3/14/2007: Provincial lottery faces more allegations
From The Globe and Mail
But internal lottery corporation documents obtained by the CBC program the fifth estate for a broadcast tonight reveal that the lottery corporation investigated four $250,000 wins by ticket sellers between November, 2002, and December, 2003, as well as the $12.5-million jackpot.
In one of the cases, a clerk in Orillia pleaded guilty to fraud. The documents say that in the other four investigations, including the $12.5-million prize that originated from a Super 7 ticket bought in St. Catharines, Ont., in December, 2003, the lottery corporation eventually awarded the prizes to the retailers.
…Since the fifth estate broadcast its first program last fall about Mr. Edmonds and the unusually high number of insiders winning lottery and instant scratch tickets, the lottery corporation has instituted new security measures. They include the installation of more than 1,800 self-serve “ticket checkers” and requirements that retailers have customers sign the back of tickets before they validate them.
After the bad publicity last fall, the lottery corporation retained outside public relations consultants. Chief executive officer Duncan Brown was instructed to appear proactive and “confident yet humble,” in media interviews, according to this week’s the fifth estate report.
From the CBC
LUCK OR LARCENY?
Wednesday March 14 at 9pm & midnight on CBC-TV
In our ongoing investigation into the high incidence of insider lottery wins by retailers, the fifth estate now has obtained new evidence, in leaked documents, that show the Bob Edmonds case was far from an isolated story.
At the same time the OLG was publicly insisting that the case of the 83-year-old Coboconk, Ontario resident who had been swindled of his prizewinning ticket was an anomaly, it was investigating other retailer wins and making payouts, in the millions of dollars.
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