Never, Ever Piss Off A Senior - The Story of the OLC

As I said, it was an auspicious day to begin this blog with not only one, but two articles upon which to comment, and it's not even noon yet.

First, allow me to state that I'm not much of a gambler; I've been to Vegas twice in my life; Both times in the 80's, when there were still remnants of the old "Rat Pack" days to be found. Each time, the limit of my gambling consisted of the nickel slots. I have no interest in cards, much to the annoyance of my family and extended maternal family, all of whom seem to have been born with a deck of cards in one hand and a bottle of rye in the other. I can forget how to play a card game as fast as I have been taught, and utterly despise rye whiskey. Those qualties plus the fact that I am the only one on either side of my family who enjoys Shakespeare and would give my eye teeth to see the entire Ring Cycle live, lends credence to my theory that I was stolen at birth by Polish Peasants. but I digress.

I have, however, bought the occasional lottery ticket knowing full well that the odds of winning the big one are not much better than if I had not bought a ticket at all. But, you never know.....

I, like many other Canadians, have been watching with great interest, the story of 82 year old Bob Edmonds and his stolen lottery ticket since his story first broke last fall on The Fifth Estate. If you have an hour or so to kill, I recommend watching both the original story, the follow up and the follow up to the follow up available on the web site linked above.

In short, Mr Edmonds bought a lottery ticket, was scammed out of his winnings ($250,000)by the unscrupulous owners of the convenience store where he had the ticket checked. It took four years, of cover ups, denial, and litigation to have this matter more or less set to rights. The Ontario Lottery Commission spent $400,000, nearly double the original prize, in legal fees fighting Mr. Edmonds. In the end Mr Edmonds won, but the story is convoluted, and to long to explain all the nuances here. The ensuing scandal has rocked the OLC to its very foundation, and cast doubts on every other provincial lottery in the country, when it was found that inside winners (retailers) were winning huge prizes at 10 times the rate of the rest of us. In Atlantic Canada, the inside winner with ratio is 25 times higher.

Yesterday, in a long overdue move the head of the OLC, Duncan Brown was fired and escorted from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission building. This occurs just days before the Provincial Ombudsman is due to release it's report on the wrong doing at the OLC.

It is interesting to note that the hierarchy in the OLC really pissed off not only Bob Edmonds but a lot of people withing the OLC itself. This was indicated by the number of documents "leaked" to The Fifth Estate during its ongoing investigation. The fingers of this cover up even reach into the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

This story isn't over yet.