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Home : Top Stories : OLG reaches one settlement in ticket fiasco

OLG reaches one settlement in ticket fiasco

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CTV News: John Vennavally-Rao on the error
CTV Toronto: Chris Eby on the settlement with a man caught up in the OLG's misprinted scratch tickets fiasco
CTV Newsnet: Kelly McDougald, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, holds a press conference to give an update on the settlement made with a Brampton man who won 135,000 dollars on misprinted tickets.

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CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Wed. Jan. 7 2009 10:53 PM ET

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has reached an undisclosed settlement with a Brampton man, who was mistakenly told he may have won $135,000 on misprinted tickets.

Thomas Noftall and his lawyer spoke with OLG officials Wednesday. An hour later, he emerged from the meeting and told reporters he understood that his tickets were not winners.

"I understand the rules. They've explained it to me. There was an error -- an error in communication," he said. "They explained to me how these tickets work, and I understand and accept it."

He still walked away with an undisclosed settlement, and said he would continue playing the lottery.

"Absolutely. I didn't win in the beginning, so I've bought my 6-49," Noftall said.

The OLG says up to 1,100 of three million $3 Fruit Smash lottery tickets had some misaligned or mismatched symbols underneath the latex surface that players scratch.

Noftall thought he had won the top prize of $75,000, plus an additional $60,000. There are million-to-one odds against winning one of the top prizes.

Two more scratch-and-win players came forward Wednesday, claiming they had won multi-thousand dollar prizes. CTV Toronto reporter Chris Eby said one player is from Belleville, Ont., the other from Toronto.

The situation with Noftall was unique because he had been erroneously told he would be paid despite the problems with his tickets.

"We are not responsible for paying non-winning tickets," Kelly McDougald, the corporation's CEO, told a news conference in Toronto on Wednesday.

Noftall's lawyer, David McFadden, said his client now understands the situation.

"We're satisfied with the explanation given to him and he's ready to move on with his life," he said.

With a report by CTV's Chris Eby in Toronto

Comments are now closed for this story

Angus
said

Give the man his money, if you can't run the OLG properly then get out of the business. I would be steaming mad if I was in his shoes.


Mike R.
said

Pay the man, he bought the tickets in good faith, it's not his fault the printers botched the tickets - that why (the printers) will have insurance.


D.K. Lindsay
said

I feel sorry for the anguish this individual may have sufferred but if OLG has published rules that cover this event then the rules must be inforced. If that means that he only gets his $3.00 or a free ticket so be it.
To give him the winnings on an illegal or flawed ticket due to public opinion is WRONG.


B Eagleson, Georgina
said

I'll never buy a scratch and win again, if this player isn't paid HIS WINNINGS. Make a mistake and take your time pulling mistakes off the market that shouldn't have been retailed in the first place is NO DEFENCE for OLG.

Guido
said

He bought this ticket in good faith and if there's a misprint, how is it his fault?



Mike
said

OLG give the guy the money...your retailers have been ripping us off for years and you did nothing, now a person buys a ticket and wins and you says sorry my printer was broken. Your "high-tech" machines should of caught this error. Does it say somewhere on the ticket that "Malfunction of the printing press voids all pays"?


Sahib Reginawale
said

My uncle has been buying lottery tickets regularly since about 30 years ago. He hasn't won as yet. Lady Luck is as cold to him as the Manitoba weather. He is frozen.


Steve in Fredericton
said

Mr Noftall bought the ticket and scratched according to the rules. If the ticket said he won then they had better pay the man his due winnings. I don't think the lottery corp would be so forgiving were I to pay for my ticket with a counterfeit bill claiming it was a "misprint".


disey
said

Very simple: he should be paid the full amount in this particular case. Reason: a lottery official mispoke and told him he would get it. If that had not happened, they could just pay a percentage or another set consolation fee for cases like this (avoids setting the costly precedent of paying in full for any errors)- but since he was promised the money, he should get it. It's a clear PR issue, now that it's in the open. There's no other solution.


Lindsay
said

Pay the guy for pete's sake. He bought the ticket and played in good faith.
OLG messed up and for the small sum of $135,000. I am sure they do not need the bad publicity either.


scott beckingsale
said

sorry to disagree, he should not get a penny.

please remember that a scratch ticket does not need to be scratched because you can just scan it to find out if it is a winner or not. the misprint unfortunate, but the ticket was not a winner to begin with. if the scanner was wrong, than yes he should get something.

if your boss deposits $10,000 in your account, but your pay stub does not have the extra money in it, would you get to keep the 10 grand????


Homer J
said

This is definately a quality issue with the OLG and if they do not have the controls in place to make sure that this does not happen with their suppliers, then they should stand behind their product.
This just adds to more bad press for the OLG. I have never purchased any lottery tickets just due to the fact that I do not trust the results and here you go again.


Diana
said

The OLG has the responsibility of ensuring that mistakes like printing errors don't happen. There is no room for errors when running a corporation of this size and no excuse for this happening. They should own up to their mistake, take the loss and pay the guy his money. The OLG is on shaky ground with the public anyway and paying him his money might put some faith back into the public.


Zhimmy
said

Pay him!


Dave T
said

The man purchased the ticket as a Scratch & Win, not Scan and Win. These tickets are sold as Scratch and Win so people have the enjoyment of playing a game of chance to see if they win. OLG, "suck it up and pay the man".


Jim in Edmonton
said

The cost of lost revenue from not paying this guy will far outweigh any gain for pulling the bait and switch. It's the fault of the lottery or it's agents and they should pay up! Again, if they don't - buyer beware - you have no fair chance of winning.


Patrick
said

I understand that there is a problem with a losing ticket looking like a winnner. Obviously there are winning tickets that look like losers with this miss print. How does OLG intend to compensate the winners that don't know it???


Al
said

He should have known it wasn't a winner since nobody but employees can win at the OGL.


John R
said

Revenues from OLG go to fund hospitals, amateur sports, and communities among others. The odds of winning are 1 million to one, and this guy thinks he won four times?? Come on! You all want us to pay this guy for 4 obviously incorrect tickets?? Please let us know from which hospital we should take this from? Perhaps the hospital nearest you already has enough doctors, nurses......


Final Results
said

My lack of trust with the OLG and certain so called mistakes they have made, has rattled any faith I have in this business.

I'm glad to see this man got something for their mistake, however I'll continue to do an honest days work for an honest wage and will only hope on the tangibles of this life and not place my hope with the OLG.


EJ Allen
said

The OLGC is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one.

If they do pay out the growing number of "unlucky winners" from this mess it will set a precident for future cases.

I agree that it is not the fault of the players who purchased these tickets however the OLGC does not print the tickets. The issue is with the printing company who is contracted to OLGC so I would imagine whatever the pay out is it should be comming from the printing company and not the OLGC.

The Lottery Corp. is also an inicent victim in this case as they were un-aware of the issues until it was too late and they were problems that they had little or no direct control over.


Ha
said

This is just a continuation of the gongshow this band of misfits has become. Countless problems, insider cheating, questionable repeat winners and now this nonsense. The OLG should be dissolved and the running of any Government Lotteries should go to those who know what the heck they are doing like Harrah's.


Pay the Man His Money
said

I didn't see them running to offer those who lost because of this printers error their $3 back. What a crock.


Noscratchnwinforme
said

If scratch n win tickets aren't about scratching but about the flipping bar code, just scan them and don't waste your time scratching them...




Mark Rinsma
said

Just like a mis printed traffic violation will not hold up in Court, because of the laws we created by voting for our politicians. We made the rules if we don't follow them because of the natural human greed that is in us all, in my opinion that is what we refer to as Anarchy. Are we all still children? Take the High road, give him $3 and an apology send him on his way. OLG should be regulated more so that it is.


Gary Wilm
said

Yet another public relations fiasco at OLG! When will the public learn that these so called 'games'are legally sanctioned theft from the less informed, desperate and guileless among us. Even when someone presents a wining ticket, this execrable entity refuses to pay up! People WAKE UP! We are taxed to death in this country. Why are you all so willing to give these leeches even more?


Sharon
said

*Give Him The Money*


Vote NDP in the next federal and provincial electi
said

I hope the OLG will indeed give Mr Noftall is true winnings without conditions. If I was in this man's shoes then I will continue fighting until I get my winnings in FULL. If it means blocking off the offices of OLG like a picket line then I'll do it.


Kevin from Sarnia
said

Awhile back I bought a "Money Multiplier" ticket at my local Mac's store. I scratched it and it said that I had won $250. Back when all the scratch cards had triangles on them to indicate that it was a losing ticket, the winning tickets usually had a letter on them to indicate that you had won something......my winning ticket did not have a letter on it and the clerk said that it was a losing ticket. I asked him to check anyway and low and behold, I did win the money! The OLG was very sneaky in that regard because some people used to just scratch the letter off to see if they had won. If they saw a triangle, it was probably discarded. The person that bought the ticket would never have known if they had won thousands or even millions. How many times has the OLG not had to pay out the winning tickets over the years when people had just thrown them out thinking that they had purchased a losing ticket? Shame on the OLG for not honouring the purchased ticket. When it happens to them, I guess it doesn't count!


PatrickD
said

OK,
If all you need to do is scan the ticket before scratching it, what is to stop a retailer from scanning all of the tickets, identifying which ones are winners, and then keeping those back for family and freinds? If you don't have to scratch the ticket then you should NEVER a ticket in the first place as there is little or no chance of winning tickets being put out for you to buy in the first place.
Also, there is an audit process that is used. An idependent third party - like Deloitte - randomly selects tickets and verifies that the ticket run is OK to release. I know - I used to do that.
I think that:
a) OLGC must pay everyone who had a bad ticket.
b) The independent third party auditors must pay for their mistakes.
c) Everyone should boycott these tickets as they are obviously a money grab for the Lottery Corp.


Tom
said

I am reading the comments and am wondering if any of you people read the story. HE WAS GIVEN a settlement. They admitted their mistake with him, but only because someone in OLG mistakenly told him that the ticket would be paid even though it was a printing error. If any of you who ever bought a ticket before actually read the rules on the ticket, you would know that the respective lottery corporation are NOT responsible for misprints. They are responsible for only giving a face value refund or replacement ticket. Ever hear of a legal disclamer anyone? As for a secret settlement, I don't agree with that. This is tax money. Everybody has the right to know how much tax dollars were spent to make this go away.


PVT
said

OLG relies heavily on a strong public perception of it's operations. Pay the man and resume business as usual - don't pay him and lose public confidence - the latter is unacceptible to OLG and that's why the settlement.


Cornwall Bob
said

Oh give me a break Scott Beckingsale....Nothing like comparing apples and oranges. A mistake in a pay cheque is just that, a mistake and an employee would not expect to receive any extra money. A scratch lottery is different. This man scratched the ticket in good faith and therefore should be paid in full as he had an expectation of being a lucky one and winning which is what he thought had happened. The law says that a store cashier must charge the amount shown on the sticker even if it's wrong, the same thing should apply here.


Pay R Hood
said

Pay him a percentage of the amount that the mistype
is over the intended spot.
If it covers 75 percent of the square he should get 75
percent of the prize.





Jason B. in Kawartha Lakes
said

The OLG and all the Casino's in Ontario are grimey! I've seen many upset patrons that aren't payed out from a slot machine win, because it didn't show up on the system in the back room. The customer isn't "always" right when is comes to the money factory the OLG runs.


GHW
said

If scratch and win tickets can scanned to see if it’s a winner then what’s stopping unscrupulous retailers from checking the tickets before their sold and giving any winning tickets to their bother in law or friend to cash in? I don’t buy scratch and win tickets because most of the winning tickets are filtered out by the retails.

As for this chap, he met the legal conditions printed on the ticket and the OLG should be forced to pay up based on that alone. When someone buys a ticket it’s like a contract as stated on the ticket. The OLG should be liable for their printing companies work.



jon c
said

It's a scratch and win, not a scan and win. Pay him the money


Edmonton Edward the Third
said

Attn, scott beckingsale, you are are wrong about just scanning the tickets. There is another bar code or serious of numbers under the part to be sratched. You must have those in order to validate the ticket.

Give the guy his cash.



Bee
said

To Steve in Fredericton,

That sums it up perfectly!

Let's see how the OLG would accept a "misprinted" bill as payment for a ticket.


Joe
said

Pay the guy! if he does not get any settlement from OLGC, i will never buy a ticket again! what a scam!


Mary Smith
said

Everybody with misprinted tickets should have their tickets honoured, not just Thomas.


Jay
said

What is wrong with these Lottery Corporations. They make so much money out of these ticket sales and yet they can't pay when a mistake is made on their part? Shouldn't there be people or some machine checking these tickets for these errors before they are released to be sold????? DUH??? OLG should pay up for any misprinted tickets PERIOD.


Jwl
said

I wonder if the OLG has misprinted barcodes that say a "visible to the player" losing ticket is actually a winner. Do we all need to scan non-winners now. So what is the point of scratching. And would the OLG be willing to pay out in this situation. The barcode says its a winner but the play area does not. Hmmmmmm.


Doug Shaw
said

Pay the guy, its not his fault OLG messed up AGAIN. I for one will not be buying any more scratch tickets. The odds were bad enough to begin with, now there's OLG???


Chris
said

If the lottery corp. will not give out ALL the prize money, then they're crooked!!!

He purchased the tickets and scratched them BEFORE they noticed the flaw. That make him a WINNER!!! For this case will open more excuses, not just from the OLG, but from all other lottery corporations. They will use the same excuse to legitimize them to say:

"oops, we made a mistake... you don't win"!!!


Stephan
said

Stop crying. He chose to GAMBLE with his money. There are no guarantees when you gamble!


mikelondon
said

It really seems like nobody at the OLG knows what is going on. Handling PR effectively is imparitive in this day and age. They should have paid the people and recalled the tickets, and avoided ANOTHER PR disaster. Pay up for heavens sake.


voldy
said

The point here is he really didn't win. So why should he get a the full winnings amount. The OLG is handling it properly and giving him compensation and they should as it was their error.


David G. Gerrard, Waterloo, Ontario
said

Suck it up, OLG. Pay all the winners. They bought tickets on good faith. Now show good faith or prepare to possible court action.


Sean from NWO
said

Pay the man! He paid his money in good faith and so should the lottery corporation. If there is a problem with a batch of tickets then perhaps they should be yanked from the shelves more quickly...The lottery terminals are linked province wide in order to send messages to vendors, so send the messages!


Dave in Newington
said

The OLG needs a total revamp...
So from here on in, every time some poor fool thinks he has a winning ticket he will be told to just suck it up....you didn't really win,it was a printing error, better luck next time!
Yeah!
Right!


peggy
said

It's not the man's problem, it's the OLG's/printer's problem. If botched tickets get into circulation before recall, that's not the lottery winner's fault. Therefore pay the man in full --- no shortcuts.


MM
said

@ Tom

you hit the nail on the head!


M from Calgary
said

Regarless if the tickets were flawed, that is not the consumers fault. That is a quality control issue with OLG. OLG is responsible and should pay the ticket. What about the individuals who lost on the "faulty tickets"? Do they get refunds? When Maple Leaf had problems with their quality control, they admitted fault with their product and fixed it, including compensation. OLG could take a lesson from a private corporation.


Mr. Greg
said

If you only knew the countless millions of dollars OLG generates from the lottery it would astound you. They are in it to get your money, not give it back. That's how lotteries work. Your odds of winning are one in a million and OLG's odds of winning are endless - every time someone buys a losing ticket.

They aren't 'Scratch and Win' tickets, they are 'Scratch and Lose' tickets. Keep your money in your pocket and out of the pockets of the greedy OLG!


AJ
said

Does the word "integrity" mean anything to the OLG? They are responsible for the mistakes and they should pay up. They also haven't heard about the word "goodwill". It is the cost of doing business. But I guess a government-owned gambling institution is only concerned about making as much money as possible and their customers can fend for themselves. Dollars to donuts if this were a non-government body, with competition, they would pay up. Another black eye for the OLG.


k.
said

this is RIDICULOUS...this guy should have been given the whole amount the tickets claimed he won...if the tickets were a misprint as claimed, they should have been destroyed and not sold to prevent something like this from happening.. but considering it wasnt responsibility should be taken by the OLG and pay the man the full amount as apposed to making a settlement to save their own asses!! makes you wonder how many winning tickets there are out there that have been claimed as losers..definatly makesw me never want to by a ticket ever again... atleast las vegas pays out EVEN IF THEY make the mistake!!!!


Darren
said

Actually it does need to be scratched scott beckingsale. Its is scanned and a code from under the scanned area is then entered into the syste.


Stu from London
said

I guess this guy thought he'd won, called the AGCO, told them what he had, and they told him it sounded like a winning ticket. The guy then goes down to the AGCO to collect his winnings, but they tell him he doesn't have a winning ticket. He then tells the media that his ticket is "misprinted". He goes to the AGCO with his lawyer and they point out to him that no, you never actually won, and the ticket is NOT a misprint. The AGCO still settled with him because a front-line worker told him he had a winner. Maybe I'll try the same trick tomorrow.


Kev in T.O.
said

He didn't have a legitimate winning ticket so he shouldn't be paid. However, OLGC owes him somethng for emotional distress. I think a sum of $10-20K should be sufficient.


Ben
said

A class action lawsuit, even if they eventually won, would cost the OLG millions. So they did the smart thing, and gave the guy ten or twenty grand to shut up and go away. (Maybe more, who knows?)

In any event, the message for all you scratch-and-win players is this: go buy "Fruit Smash!" Your odds of winning a nice prize -- even if it is just a settlement -- are better than any other game out there! Good luck!


Tracey
said

If the OLC knew of this printing error, why was it not a newsworthy item until this man came forward? The recall should have happened the moment they knew there was a problem. Let this be a lesson to everyone. Have your ticket verified first by the OLC before you make any plans for the money.


giovanni
said

I think he is entitled to the money.


Ping from Barrie
said

My my, how the story teller has reversed the story. Looks like reading the fine print under "Rules" is an important thing to remember before you cry wolf to a over eager media. Read the rules.


Dave Kennedy
said

I have an example that leads to my point. Bare with me here. let's just say that 25 percent of ontario(population-11,410,046)wich is 2,852,511 people either buy a 3$ scratch or 649 play once a week. so thats $8,557,534 a week times 4 weeks in a month
times 12 months in a year. equals $410,761,656. Thats just Ontario OK!! you mean to tell me that a corporation like OLGC will accept that much money from the good people of ontario who pay their money to play some scratch tickets and "Maybe" win some cash, cannot ensure that the "Latex" surface and the "printing" of these tickets is not applied properly so that the "symbols" on the ticket line up properly???!!!
If I can't put shingles on a roof properly then I definately should not be a roofer!!



Curlylou, NB
said

PAY R HOOD: Enjoyed reading your logical perspective! And totally agree with it.

P.A.
said

I bet they paid him on the condition that he publicly says he did not win and keeps quite about what they gave him. They don't want the PR of him demanding his payout, and they don't want to encourage others to follow in his footsteps.


Mike
said

Contrary to what OLG says we are all legally responsible for our own actions mistaken or otherwise. Maybe they can find a technicality but it will never make them right


Tk in Bc
said

Seriously, folks, read between the lines already! "Move on with his life" means "Settled out of court." Buddy's been paid and told to keep it quiet. Next story please.


Matt
said

Considering how many people buy lottery tickets EACH DAY, $135000 is nothing. Several millions of dollars are spent by normal, hopeful citizens who trust the commission. I too would be very unsatisfied with OLG's performance and guarantees. Give the man his money, he deserves it.


JAmes
said

He should not be paid the $135,000. The symbols appearing on the latex did not correspond with the symbols below on the ticket. A smaller compensation payment should be made to the individual.


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