A national gambling watchdog group has raised new concerns about lottery scratch cards sold in Ontario, charging that current practices are unfair and misleading to the consumer.

The Gambling Watch Network filed a letter with Ontario's ombudsman complaining that scratch tickets are sold even after the top prizes have been won. Brian Yealland, the group's spokesman, said retailers should stop selling tickets if the buyer has no chance of winning the jackpot.

The Gambling Watch Network has filed a complaint with Ontario's ombudsman, saying lottery tickets should be pulled once the top prizes have been won.
(CBC)

"People go on purchasing those tickets although they have no chance of winning, and it seems to us that this is a breach of the understanding one has in buying a ticket," Yealland said.

This practice has been the subject of scrutiny and lawsuits in the United States, causing some state lotteries to include disclaimers on the tickets explaining that some prizes may already be won. In Iowa, instant win tickets are pulled from stores once the grand prizes have been claimed, said Tina Potthoff, a spokeswoman for the Iowa State Lottery.

"We want to make sure our players have a chance to win the top prize every time they purchase a ticket," Potthoff said. "If by chance a top prize is missing and they only have a second- or third-tier prize, we feel that's false advertising."

A spokesman for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation said players can call a toll-free number printed on the back of each scratch and win ticket to find out which prizes are still available to be won.

The province's ombudsman, André Marin, has launched an investigation into OLGC practices, following a report by CBC's The Fifth Estate questioning the suspicious number of retailers and clerks who have won lotteries. Last month, it was revealed that in the past seven years Ontario clerks and retailers have claimed lottery victories nearly 200 times. University of Toronto statistician Jeffery Rosenthal said the number should have been closer to 57, and was a nearly impossible statistical anomaly.

The Fifth Estate probe stemmed from a lawsuit involving Coboconk, Ont., senior Bob Edmonds and the OLG. Edmonds alleged that his winning ticket had been fraudulently claimed at a local store and eventually reached a settlement with both the retailer and the OLG.

After the report aired, the lottery corporation announced measures such as more electronic devices for players to check their own tickets, rules prohibiting clerks from handling a ticket unless it has been signed on the back by a customer and video screens that would face customers.

CBC News later raised questions about the high number of retailers and clerks claiming wins on scratch tickets. Internal data from the OLG indicate that at one point, retailers and clerks claimed wins on scratch tickets 10 per cent of the time.

According to OLG documents, investigators routinely checked for "pin-pricking" —where a scratch ticket card is scratched very lightly to see if it contains a winning code — while looking into allegations of insider wins.

Duncan Brown, CEO of the lottery corporation, announced last week that he's considering the idea of banning the purchase of lottery tickets by clerks who sell them.