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Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
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The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), also known as Ontario Lottery and Gaming is a Crown Corporation of the Government of Ontario, Canada. It is responsible for the province's lotteries, charity and Aboriginal casinos, commercial casinos, and slot machines at horse-racing tracks. It was created in April 2000 when the Ontario Lottery Corporation (OLC) was merged with the Ontario Casino Corporation (OCC), established in 1994. OLG employs over 8000 individuals throughout Ontario.
The OLG's prize centre is located in Toronto, while the OLG's primary headquarters are located in Sault Ste. Marie.
Whereas the OLG is responsible for, and operates a variety of gaming services, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) regulates casino gaming. The OLG reports through its Board of Directors to the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.
History
Wintario was the first lottery game offered by the fledgling OLG in May 1975. The product was discontinued in late 1996 after awarding over CAD$1.1 billion in winnings.[1]
Logos
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's (OLG) first logo 2000 - 2006.
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OLG's Logo (2006-present).
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Divisions
The OLG has five business divisions:[2]
Lottery products
The OLG operates nine draw-style lottery games through retailers across the province. In addition, OLG also offers Lotto Advance for Lotto 6/49 players.
Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Super 7 are operated across Canada by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation. The OLG also offers instant scratch games under the brand Instant Games, and sports games under the brands Pro-Line, Point-Spread and Pro-Picks.
Casinos
OLG owns and manages ten casinos, some of which have private operators:
(* Operated directly by the OLG. All others are handled by private operators)
Slots
OLG operates slot machine facilities at 17 racetracks across Ontario. They are located at:
E-bingo
OLG operates e-bingo centres in Barrie, Peterborough, Kingston and Sudbury. Some games are linked to be played at all four simultaneously.
Controversies
Retailer fraud
On October 25, 2006, the CBC program the fifth estate aired an investigative report on lottery retailers winning major prizes. The report focused on 82-year-old Bob Edmonds whose $250,000 winning Encore ticket was stolen by the clerk of a convenience store when he went to have his ticket checked in 2001. This began a four-year-long ordeal for Edmonds when the OLG ignored his inquiries when the clerk and her husband were falsely named the rightful winners, and later, when the couple were arrested for fraud, refused to return his winnings. The OLG maintained that it wasn't their responsibility that they had been tricked into naming the wrong winner; in 2004, a judge disagreed, and forced the OLG to give Edmonds his money. They did so, on the condition that Edmonds sign a confidentiality agreement, so that he would never tell the press about certain details of the ordeal. Also, the fifth estate uncovered internal OLG memos, where several OLG employees admitted they believed Edmonds' story, even when the OLG was refusing to give him back the money. Immediately following the broadcast, Bob Edmonds received a call from the OLG's president, Duncan Brown, who apologized and said he was ashamed about how his staff treated Edmonds. The OLG later released Edmonds from the confidentiality agreement. Edmonds died on April 2, 2007.
In another case, Toronto variety store owner Hafiz Malik had defrauded four school board employees out of their $5.7 million prize. He was arrested after the original ticket owners filed a complaint with police. The OPP seized or froze over $5-million of Malik's assets, including bank accounts, three cars, and a home in Mississauga. The OLG has since awarded the rightful winners the prize plus interest.[1]
The the fifth estate report added that over 200 lottery retailers in Ontario have won major prizes from 1999 to 2006. A statistician featured in the report calculated that the chance that this would occur purely out of luck is one in a "trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion" (or quindecillion).[3] The OLG did have a policy on insider wins, however it was rarely enforced during that period. Provincial ombudsman André Marin released a report stating that Ontario store owners and their families claimed about $100-million in lottery wins between 1999 and 2006, with tens of millions of fraudulent claims being ignored by the OLG.[2]
The OLG has since mandated new security measures to protect lottery customers, notably with customer-facing displays when tickets are checked, as well as special music played with a winning ticket. As of January 28, 2008, lottery retailers are required to ensure that tickets are signed. There is a signature box shown on the front of all on-line lottery tickets.
Sign Your Lotto Ticket, As of January 28, 2008, lottery customers are required to sign their lottery tickets.
Lottery ticket recall
In March 2007, the OLG announced that it had recalled over 1,000,000 scratch and win tickets. The "Super Bingo" series of tickets were removed from retail stores after it was announced that a customer made the claim that he could visually tell which tickets were winners. It was the largest recall ever of a lottery ticket in Canada, and were prompted in part from greater media scrutiny regarding ongoing fraud investigations.
Slot machine recall
In February 2007, it was discovered that 87 slot machines at Provincially run casinos were displaying subliminal messages on slot machine screens to players. An image of a winning symbol combination was shown quickly before or during the simulated spinning of the slot machine reels. The manufacturer, Konami provided a software update for the machines.
Aftermath
In the wake of these controversies, the provincial government ordered Duncan Brown to be relieved of his position as OLG chief on 21 March 2007. This was not public knowledge until two days later, when Brown's dismissal took effect. David Caplan, Ontario's minister responsible for OLG, intended to announce this firing on 26 March following the release of a report on OLG's situation by provincial ombudsman André Marin. Marin criticized the OLG for being more fixated on profits than the integrity of games after a disproportionate number of lottery retailers or their families claimed winning tickets.[4][5]
References
- ^ "Ontario Wintario". MSN/Sympatico (2003). Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
- ^ "Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation". About the OLG. Retrieved on 2005-06-17.
- ^ "Luck of the Draw". CBC (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
- ^ "Fired lotto chief `in shock'", Toronto Star (24 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
- ^ "Chief of Ontario lottery corporation dismissed", CBC (23 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
External links
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