OLG suspected more clerks stole winning tickets: CBC report
Contrary to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s claims, the case of an elderly Ontario man whose $250,000 lottery ticket was stolen by a retail clerkmight not have been anisolated one, the CBC has learned.
'Mr. Edmonds' case wasn't an isolatedincident as the lottery corporation said it was.' —Alan Rachlin, lawyer for Bob Edmonds
A new Fifth Estate investigation reveals that ticket retailers mighthave stolen winning lottery tickets before — and that the OLG might have known about it and paid out millions anyway.
The Fifth Estate obtained a leaked OLG document showing the organization has investigated similar cases of suspected insider fraud since as early as 2003.
In that year alone, the OLG was looking into six suspicious lottery claims from lottery ticket clerks whose stories did not add up. One of those six cases involved 82-year-old Bob Edmonds, the Coboconk, Ont., resident who sued the OLG, alleging his $250,000 ticket was fraudulently claimed at a local corner store.
Before jury deliberations in the trial could begin in March 2005, the OLG paid Edmonds $100,000 to settle his claim. Edmonds signed a confidentiality agreement as part of the deal.
The Fifth Estate told Edmonds' story last fall, sparking a broader investigation into the OLG that revealed that in the past seven years, Ontario clerks and retailers claimed lottery wins nearly 200 times — a statistical anomaly, according to experts.
OLG spokespersons assured the CBC at the time Edmonds' case was the only one. But the new evidence appears to prove there may be at least four others who might not have known they were winners.
Suspicious womantook prize
In perhaps the mostextreme case, a 22-year-old Burlington, Ont., woman under investigation by the OLG still collected a Boxing Day lottery jackpot of$12.5 million. This was in spite of the woman's failure to identify her affiliation with a ticket retailer, as well as her inability to remember where she purchased the winning ticket. It was eventually revealed her family managed a convenience store.
OLG investigators flagged the woman's story as suspicious and concluded her ticket ownership was in question, but nevertheless paid her the following year when nobody came forward to contest the ticket.
Alan Rachlin, Edmonds' lawyer, said he's frustrated the OLG did not come clean about the other cases from the start.
"Mr. Edmonds' case wasn't an isolated incident as the lottery corporation said it was," Rachlin said.
The same document leaked to The Fifth Estate also indicated the OLGconsidered changing its "insider win" policy, whichsubjects retailers who claim prizes to extra scrutiny. The change would have meant stopping investigationsinto winning retailers.
The OLG dropped that idea, however,when CBC News began its investigation into Edmonds' case.
To catch the CBC's full investigative report, tune into The Fifth Estate Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.