Are There Risks In Lottery Ticket Validation?

Published: Thursday, October 26, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

ARE THERE RISKS IN LOTTERY TICKET VALIDATION?

It's a lurking fear for many lottery players - could they be ripped off on a winning lotto ticket?


Every lottery player has considered it - could a ticket seller machine-validating a win switch the ticket or otherwise scam the rightful owner out of his or her winnings?

This week the media in Ontario, Canada were in full flight on the topic following a university number crunching survey that threw up some unlikely results.

University of Toronto statisticians claimed "The numbers just don't add up" after studying the amount of lottery workers who've won major jackpots over the past seven years, and that conclusion has led to some startling allegations against the integrity of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

A recent investigation found that 214 ticket-sellers out of some 140 000 retailers have won jackpots averaging $500 000 since 1999, and number cruncher Dr. Jeffrey Rosenthal said the odds of "insiders" winning that much and that often were unlikely.

"We did an analysis of how many lottery store owners and employees are out there and how often we should expect them to win," the statistician explained. "We figured that maybe at most, maybe 57 would be expected to win. Then you say, okay, maybe 60 or 65 might win just if they're a bit lucky.

"But the fact that about 200 of them won, that's just not going to happen and we ran the numbers and something like one chance in a trillion trillion trillion trillion that that many insiders would win just by pure luck alone."

This has led to allegations that ticket-sellers are ripping off prize money - telling big money winners that they've only won a bit of cash or a free ticket.

The OLG disputes the claims and insists that investigations are conducted every time a retailer or clerk wins a big prize.

"Any time someone wins a prize that's over $50 000, a major prize ... we conduct a thorough review, an investigation on of how they've arrived at that ticket, every time, 100 percent of the time," spokeswoman Teresa Roncon explained. That includes ticket-sellers, clerks, and their relatives. The gaming organization says it's had to contact the Ontario Provincial Police four times over the past five years regarding lottery wins and that two of those calls were for information purposes only.

"Two of those times resulted in charges; two other times were merely for advice and information," Roncon said.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming spokesperson outlines security measures that the OLG takes to combat fraud, which are probably like most mass lotteries:

* Customer-facing information screens on all lottery terminals, which display a message when a winning ticket is validated, and play music to tell the customer they've won. A major-prize win also triggers a different winning tune and a special screen message.

* Lottery terminal freezes that shut down a terminal completely when a major-prize winning ticket ($50,000 or more) is validated. OLG staff then calls the retailer and speaks directly to the winner while they are in the store to provide specific instructions. The terminal can only be turned back on by our corporate head office.

* In-store self-serve ticket checkers where customers can check their own tickets electronically to know if they have won.

* All instant ticket games are audited by Deloitte & Touche, and Ernst and Young annually reviews the operations of OLG's lottery gaming system.

And to conclude - a few safety measures readers can take to ensure they don't fall victim to fraud:

* Always sign the back of your ticket.

* Check your numbers yourself either on our website at olg.ca, the winning numbers lists at retail, either on our customer screens or by asking for a hard copy, on television, or in the newspapers.

* Make sure you get your ticket back, with the validation slip.