Following in the footsteps of an Ontario investigation, the BC government has discovered that there may be some discrepancies in the way our lotto games are handled on the retailer level as well.
Ombudsman Kim Carter released a damning report on the lotto business in BC, suggesting that it’s open to fraud and requires more safeguards to make sure that those playing the lottery aren’t being duped out of their winnings.
Solicitor General John Les announced that from that report the BC government will have an audit conducted on the lottery system in the province. Carter found four particularly disturbing examples of things looking rather fishy for the Lottery Corporation
--Retailers that appear to be winning unusually often, with 21 B.C. Lottery Corporation retailers or employees turning up as multiple winners.
Ombudsman Kim Carter released a damning report on the lotto business in BC, suggesting that it’s open to fraud and requires more safeguards to make sure that those playing the lottery aren’t being duped out of their winnings.
Solicitor General John Les announced that from that report the BC government will have an audit conducted on the lottery system in the province. Carter found four particularly disturbing examples of things looking rather fishy for the Lottery Corporation
--Retailers that appear to be winning unusually often, with 21 B.C. Lottery Corporation retailers or employees turning up as multiple winners.
--One retailer won 11 times in five years, collecting more than $300,000 in prizes.
--Another ticket seller claimed $10,000 in prizes every year for four years, and a third person won 13 prizes worth more than $3,000 in a year.
"Most notable," she said, was the lack of scrutiny involving wins under $10,000.
The issue of lottery fraud first came to light through the CBC Newsmagazine program the Fifth Estate which investigated Ontario’s lottery system last year and found numerous problems with the way the industry was regulated.
BC decided that the time was at hand for an investigation of its own business and from the Ombudsman’s report we move now to the audit phase and perhaps after that criminal prosecution.
While British Columbians await further details on how trustworthy the legalized gambling scene is, they can protect themselves with a few simple things. Check your own ticket from an official source, fill in your own ticket on the back regardless of size and always ask for your losing tickets to be returned to you should you be told you don’t have a winner.
And if you’re local retailer is taking frequent vacations, has purchased a large house and suddenly is driving fancy cars on a regular basis, maybe change retailers just to be on the safe side.
B.C. lottery system slammed by ombudsman
One retailer won more than $300,000 in 5 years
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 3:48 PM PT
CBC News
The B.C. government will conduct an audit of the province's lottery system, following the release of a damning report Tuesday by the province's ombudsman that found it's open to fraud.
Ombudsman Kim Carter said the government-owned B.C. Lottery Corporation did not have adequate procedures in place to ensure that correct prize amounts were paid out to the rightful owners of winning tickets.
The ombudsman says the lottery corporation needs to track all wins by retailers.(CBC)
In announcing the audit, Solicitor General John Les said Carter's report raises questions about how the system became vulnerable to fraud.
He said it defies belief that the lottery corporation didn't know there was likely criminal fraud going on against the public.
"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to put two and two together and figure out there's something fishy going on there. They should've gone down there like a rat down a drainpipe and figured it out."
Carter launched her inquiry after a CBC News investigation late last year found widespread problems in Ontario's lottery system.
Ontario's ombudsman concluded in March that province's lottery corporation was "fixated on profits rather than customer service."
B.C. ticket retailers won repeatedly
In her report on the B.C. situation, Carter said that a few retailers appeared to be winning unusually often, with 21 B.C. Lottery Corporation retailers or employees turning up as multiple winners.
She noted one retailer won 11 times in five years, collecting more than $300,000 in prizes.
Another ticket seller claimed $10,000 in prizes every year for four years, and a third person won 13 prizes worth more than $3,000 in a year.
"Most notable," she said, was the lack of scrutiny involving wins under $10,000.
Carter said the corporation, which is responsible for lotteries and gaming in B.C., should have been interested in finding out why some retailers were winning so much.
She also noted there was no process to track and analyze the rates of play and wins by retailers and their employees.
The B.C. Lottery Corporation did its own investigation late last year, but Carter said it was inadequate.
"At the beginning, in their first set of trials, when they sent out their mystery shoppers, they didn't send them out with winning tickets to check. They sent them out with ones that weren't winners. And that was one of the things the investigators from our office picked up on right away."
Carter says the best thing the lottery corporation can do is track all wins by retailers.
The lottery corporation says it accepts all of the ombudsman's recommendations.
So far, no one involved in the multiple winnings in B.C. has been charged with a criminal offence.
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