Ontario lottery corporation to review security practices

Ontario has askedfor an immediate investigation of the province's gaming corporation after a report on CBC's The Fifth Estate alleged that lottery ticket vendors are winning more jackpots than statistically reasonable.

But critics of the gambling system accused the government of doing too little, too late andwant itto go one step further by calling for an independent review.

David Caplan, the minister responsible for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.,called for the internal review, acknowledging in the legislature Wednesday that the ministry is taking the allegations made in thereport aired this week seriously.

However, he also defendedthe corporation as having "some of the most stringent inside-win provisions of any organization of its kind in North America."

In the investigative report aired on CBC this week, a statistician revealed that of the roughly 60,000 lottery ticket sellers in Ontario, retailers won nearly 200 times in the past seven years, with an average prize of $500,000.

The numbers were based on an analysis statistician Jeffrey Rosenthal of the University of Toronto did, concluding that the chance of retailers winning the lottery 200 times is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.

Brian Yealland, a spokesman for the Gambling Watch Network, criticized Ontario for its current system, where the gamingcorporationis responsible for its own reviews.

"That's asking the wolf to mind the sheep,"Yealland said. "The OLG's primary concern is to protect its profit line and protect its image."

The citizen's group suggests Canada follow in New Zealand's footsteps by keeping gaming operators separate from independent regulators, instead of copying the U.S. model.

The gaming corporation has defended its security practices, saying internal staff for the OLG investigate each time a retailer or clerk wins a major prize.