OLG Pulls Bingo Tickets After Bizarre Allegations
Posted March 15, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If you play those “Super Bingo” lottery tickets, your number may be up.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming has pulled at least one million of the popular scratch and win games off the market after a single phone caller complained he found a way to spot a winner simply by looking at the cards.
More than 10,000 kiosks have been affected province-wide.
The move to remove the lottery dispenser’s best seller comes despite the fact that it’s based on only a single user and that no one seems able to say exactly what the method of detecting a winner is.
But the powers that be at the lottery, already stinging over past allegations that a few retailers appeared to be cheating customers by claming their prizes or winning more often than the odds would suggest, have decided to pull the tickets first and then investigate the unproven claim.
A recent report indicates OLG may not be the only one dealing with those issues.
New allegations have surfaced in Atlantic Canada that claim retailers who sell tickets in that region have won big prizes ten times more often in the past six years than the odds say they should.
The findings contend that of nearly 1,300 jackpots over $25,000 won over a five year period, 44 went to retailers, while another 25 store clerks cashed in on the big bucks.
While Atlantic officials have refused to say anyone has done anything wrong, they’ve followed Ontario’s lead in tightening up the rules.
And we should soon know more about the supposed irregularities in this province.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin is expected to issue a report on the ongoing allegations about the unusual incidents reported here sometime next month.
But Marin thinks the OLG did the right thing in this latest case.
“If they feel that there’s an issue involving the trust that people have in playing the game, because of evidence that’s come to their attention, I think that we need to protect that trust,” he argues.
“You know, a game of lottery is all about a game of trust. It involves billions of dollars of money from the pockets of Ontarians, and I think it behooves the OLG to take whatever measures they believe is necessary to protect that trust.”
Meanwwhile, Super Bingo addicts won’t be going through complete withdrawal while the tickets are checked out. OLG rushed out a batch of replacements on Thursday. They’re called “Hawaiian Bingo” and they’re being sold at kiosks now.
From the archives:
