Corporation Lotto Ontario
Corporation Lotto Ontario
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLGC) , but for corporate branding purposes simply known as "OLG" 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 OLGC's prize centre is located in Toronto, while the OLG's primary headquarters is located in Sault Ste. Marie.
Whereas the OLGC 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 OLC in May 1975. The product was discontinued in late 1996 after awarding over CAD$1.1 billion in winnings.
From 1994 until 2009 OLG also offered a national game Lotto Super 7 which was available across Canada.
Logos
Divisions
The OLGC has five business divisions:
Lottery products
The OLGC operates nine draw-style lottery games through retailers across the province. In addition, OLGC also offers Lotto Advance for Lotto 6/49 players.
Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max are operated across Canada by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation. The OLGC also offers instant scratch games under the brand Instant Games, and sports games under the brands Pro-Line, Point-Spread and Pro-Picks.
Casinos
OLGC owns and manages ten casinos, some of which have private operators:
- OLG Casino Brantford* ( formerly: Brantford Charity Casino )
- Casino Niagara
- Casino Rama
- OLG Casino Sault Ste. Marie* ( formerly: Casino Sault Ste. Marie )
- Caesars Windsor ( formerly: Casino Windsor )
- Great Blue Heron Casino*
- Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort
- OLG Casino Point Edward* ( formerly: Point Edward Charity Casino )
- OLG Casino Thousand Islands* ( formerly: Thousand Islands Charity Casino )
- OLG Casino Thunder Bay* ( formerly: Thunder Bay Charity Casino )
(* Operated directly by the OLGC. All others are handled by private operators)
Slots
OLGC operates slot machine facilities at 17 racetracks across Ontario. They are located at:
- Ajax Downs
- Clinton Raceway
- Dresden Raceway
- Flamboro Downs
- Fort Erie Race Track
- Georgian Downs
- Grand River Raceway
- Hanover Raceway
- Hiawatha Horse Park
- Kawartha Downs
- Mohawk Racetrack
- Rideau Carleton Raceway
- Sudbury Downs
- Western Fair Raceway
- Windsor Raceway
- Woodbine Racetrack
- Woodstock Raceway
E-bingo
OLGC operates e-bingo centres in Barrie, Peterborough, Kingston and Sudbury. Some games are linked to be played at all four simultaneously.
Age requirements
The minimum age to purchase OLGC lottery tickets is 18; however, for patronizing casinos and/or parimutuel facilities in the province, it is 19. (the same for Ontario's drinking age).
Violators who sell OLGC lottery tickets to anyone under the age of 18 can face significant fines under the legislation passed in 1997. In addition OLGC reserves the right to suspend violators found to have sold OLGC lottery tickets to anyone under the age of 18.
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 OLGC 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 OLGC 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 OLGC 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 OLGC memos, where several OLG employees admitted they believed Edmonds' story, even when the OLGC 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 OLGC 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 OLGC has since awarded the rightful winners the prize plus interest.
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). The OLGC 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 OLGC.
The OLGC 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.
Lottery ticket recalls
2007 Super Bingo recall
In March 2007, the OLGC 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.
2009 Fruit Scratch recall
In January 2009, the OLGC announced it has recalled over 1,000 scratch and win tickets. The "Fruit Scratch" series of lottery tickets were removed from retail stores after it was discovered that over dozens of lottery tickets were reportedly misprinted. Up to 150 of the misprinted tickets were reportedly purchased at eight stores across Southern Ontario one-week before the recall was issued. The OLGC has since reached an undisclosed settlement with a 27-year old Thomas Noftall from Brampton, Ontario, who was mistakenly told that he may have won $135,000 on a misprinted lottery ticket.
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 OLGC 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 OLGC, intended to announce this firing on 26 March following the release of a report on OLGC'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.
Gallery
References
- ^ "Ontario Wintario". MSN/Sympatico. 2003 . http://lottery.sympatico.msn.ca/cgi-bin/english?job=on_wintario . Retrieved 2006-10-06 .
-
^
"Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation".
About the OLG
LOTTO MAX - Winning Numbers - Did You Win? - BCLC
LOTTO MAX Winning Numbers. In order to ensure the accuracy of LOTTO MAX ... Ont = Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation : BC = British Columbia Lottery Corporation
Ontario Lottery Results, Ontario Lotteries, Ontario Lotto Results from ...
Find Ontario Lottery Results, Ontario Lotteries, Ontario Lotto Results, Lotto 6/49, Ontario 49, Lottario ... Corporate Info
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Official Web site for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's lottery players, aged 18 and over. ... Subscribe to LOTTO 6/49; Claiming Prizes; Winners; Go to Lotteries; PRO•LINE. PRO ...
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation - Wikipedia, the free ...
In addition, OLGC also offers Lotto Advance for Lotto 6/49 players. Lotto 6/49 ... Retrieved 2007-03-24. ^ "Chief of Ontario lottery corporation dismissed".
OLG - LOTTO 6/49
Official Web site for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's lottery players, aged 18 and over. Featuring winning numbers, upcoming jackpots, game demos, winners and ...
Ontario Lottery, ON Lotto Information, Contact, Drawing Schedule ...
Ontario Lottery Winning Numbers: Search Past ON Lottery Numbers Recent Ontario Lotto 6/49 Winning Numbers ... Ontario Lottery Corporation Consumer Affairs 70 Foster Drive ...
OLG - Corporate News Releases - 2008-2009
Lotto 6/49 : MISSISSAUGA : 11112-1629-0566-0678-28041 : Lotto 6/49 : NEW LISKEARD ... Government of Ontario Privacy Policy | Security | Legal ©2007 Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Lottery Insider -- Ontario Lottery Corporation
ONTARIO, Canada (January 12, 2007) -- The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLGC) plans on installing 10,000 "self-check" machines at lotto retailers across ...
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation ... Lotto Max and Lottario as a regional game. OLG was founded on April 1st, 2000 as a result of a merger between the Ontario Casino Corporation ...
Ontario Lottery Results, Lotto 6/49, Super 7, Pick 3, Keno, Lottario ...
Ontario Lottery Results, Lotto 6/49, Super 7, Pick 3, Keno, Lottario, Ontario 49, The Lottery Depot ... Copyright © 1998 Digital Lotteries Corporation All Rights ...
