CBC claims more lottery fraud

The Canadian Press  /  CP
National/World - Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Updated @ 8:22:19 AM

CBC News is reporting new allegations of retailer fraud in Ontario lotteries. Earlier this month, Ontario Lottery and Gaming introduced new security measures amid reports retailers were cheating winners out of their prizes.

Now, CBC-TV's ``The National'' reports one in 10 scratch and win lottery prizes was claimed by a clerk.

The CBC quotes internal lottery documents obtained by the ``Fifth Estate'' detailing how clerks could lightly scratch a ticket with a pin to determine if it was a winner.

And it reported a Toronto statistician Mohan Srivastava found a way to decode which tickets would win one game.

The CBC says those tickets were quietly recalled.

Lottery chief executive Duncan Brown said the corporation can do better.

``We're committed to doing better,'' Brown told the CBC. ``And we want to make sure that we retain that public trust.''

The new security measures include devices that allow players to check their own tickets, better use of customer-facing video screens, lowering the threshold for when a retailer's win prompts an investigation and a more robust complaints and investigations system.

Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin, however, dismissed the strategy, saying it was little more than an attempt to soothe the ``hurt feelings'' of the public.

The firestorm was ignited last month when a report on the ``Fifth Estate'' suggested lottery retailers have won more prizes in recent years than mere chance would normally allow.

A disproportionate number of retailers have collected prizes of $50,000 or more since 1999, the CBC alleged.