Marin's main recommendation was that the fraud prevention work be broken off from the function of selling tickets and other administrative functions. But given the fact that this is the government, don't look for any dramatic changes any time soon.

There's an easy solution to all of the problems that have recently been revealed about Ontario Lottery and Gaming – people should just refuse to buy any more tickets until the government, sometime during the next millennium no doubt, manages to get their act together. If you can't buy a lottery ticket sold by the government without making it a lucky day for some dishonest retail employee, then simply don't buy tickets. It's that simple.

Buying lottery tickets is just one of the many forms that gambling takes. But unfortunately we live in an age where many people are incapable of doing or accomplishing anything unless the government does it for them. They need the government to help raise their children, look after their aging parents and look after them when they get the sniffles. Gambling is a vice. Is it too much to ask that even a nanny state government allow people to be responsible for their own vices? Apparently it is.

Most people buy lottery tickets for fun. If they don't like the massive fraud, they should simply refrain from purchasing any more tickets from a government agency that is involved in a massive $100 million fraud.

Then there are those, of course who are addicted to gambling including buying lottery tickets. That's not saying much because this is the 21st century and people are now "addicted" to anything and everything that they know is bad for them but they want to do anyway. Those people can't give up the lottery ticket purchases but there is another situation. They merely have to look at it this way – when they buy a ticket they are gambling on winning and losing. But if they have a winning ticket, they are further gambling on whether or not they will get the proceeds or whether they will be ripped off by the seller. Two gambles for the price of one. Could the life of a hard core gambler get any better than that? And it's not often that you are able to get a 2 for 1 deal from the government. OLG should be kept as it is; the taxpayers should not be forced to fork over more money for the inevitable inquiries and investigations that are sure to follow.

People shouldn't need the government to provide their gambling for them. Whatever happened to the neighbourhood bookie? Not only would a bookie likely be more honest, but Ontarians would become healthier if they gambled with bookies instead of the government. After all, how many people went into a bookie joint to gamble and left with a big bag of potato chips and a few chocolate bars? Taking the government out of the equation would result in the rates of obesity plummeting.

And the OLG fiasco is not simply a Dalton McGuinty government problem. On the eve of the Ombudsman's report, the government fired Duncan Brown, head of the Corporation. This guy presided over a company that was involved in a $100 million fraud, got fired and all the opposition could do was to accuse McGuinty of firing him so he could collect severance and sweep the problem under the rug. Guess they thought Brown should still be running things. Liberals, John Tory, same old story (sorry Howard, couldn't work you in there).

It would be so much simpler if people just stopped buying the tickets.

Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement