Lottery Fraud
Okay, so you'll have to forgive my Sunday tabloid headline approach to this entry, but I wanted to make sure that I had your full attention. You see, there have been a few lottery scandals in recent years, and although none of these have involved the UK National Lottery, I wanted to discuss the topic of trust. Specifically, do we trust the companies that organise the lottery games we play? Or, indeed, the retailers that we buy our tickets from?
Players of the Ontario lottery probably trusted both the company and the retailers, but that particular lottery is currently steeped in controversy due to allegations that a small number of retailers have been trying to dupe genuine winners by checking tickets and giving out a small prize, all the while keeping the winning ticket for themselves.
For example, in October 2006, 78 year old Robert Edmonds took his Ontario Lottery ticket to an authorised store and was flatly told that he had won a free ticket. The owners of the store then claimed the real prize that the elderly player had won, and effectively pocketed $250,000 of stolen money.
To cheat lottery players at all is scandalous, but to target the most vulnerable players is both cruel and vindictive. I would urge all lottery players in any country to check their own tickets, rather than relying on retail clerks who may or may not seek to snatch your winnings right from under your nose.
Of course, nobody is saying that corruption is rife in the lottery industry, because that is not the case at all. Lottery watchdogs such as Oflot generally do a great job in ensuring that our favourite game is operated in an honest and fair way, and personally I don't think that any lottery operator would knowingly jeopardise their licence by trying to make profits illegally.
But what lottery watchdogs can't do is monitor every single person involved right down to the grass roots level. And so I return to the question I opened with - do you trust the people who are involved in the lottery games you play?
If your answer to this question is an automatic yes then I would urge you to be careful, because you are exactly the type of person who could be duped next. The sensible approach is to give lottery operators the benefit of the doubt but to take full responsibility yourself for buying, checking and claiming any winnings due from your own ticket.
As Mulder used to say in the X-Files, "Trust No One!"
Article Last Updated: 27/03/2007 13:23:44
