Premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed calls yesterday to overhaul Ontario’s problem-plagued lottery corporation, saying he won’t “hang” the agency over a few misprinted tickets.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. is recalling 92 lottery tickets sold Monday that were printed with the wrong draw date — the latest in a string of missteps that critics say have undermined public confidence in the gaming agency.
McGuinty acknowledged the OLG’s record is far from perfect, but said it took the right steps to remedy the latest mistake.
“There’s always some political fun to be had in dealing with the OLG, given their record, which is less than stellar,” McGuinty said in the legislature.
“But are we going to hang them for 92 misprints on a day when they sold 563,639 tickets? I think not.”
The misprints are yet another foul-up by a $6-billion-a-year agency that’s already been sharply criticized for insider wins, botched scratch-and-win tickets and even buying foreign cars instead of Ontario-made vehicles as casino prizes, said NDP critic Peter Kormos.
