Gamblers are taking Loto Quebec to court in an attempt to make the agency more transparent.
Lawyer Karim Renno filed the request for a class action lawsuit in Superior Court on July 29 on behalf of Martha Karra.
He wants the court to authorize a $150 million lawsuit on behalf of three million people who bought tickets for Banco, Extra, Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max, Quebec 49, Quebec Max, and La Quotidienne between July 29, 2013 and July 29, 2016. A judge must rule on whether the case can proceed.
His argument is that Loto Quebec does not adequately publicize the odds of winning a lottery, a major problem in a province where one in seven people say they are counting on lottery winnings for their retirement.
"If you see a television ad or a print ad you never see the odds of winning there," said Renno.
He argues that the odds aren't even presented to those who have bought tickets.
"When you purchase a lottery ticket for the lotteries that are targeted by the class action you're never provided with the odds of winning. The only thing you're provided is, after you've made the purchase and you receive the ticket, on the back of the ticket you see a simple inscription that you should go see Loto Quebec's website to find the odds of winning," said the lawyer.
A search of the Loto Quebec website shows the odds of winning Lotto Max or similar lotteries is about 1 in 28 million. The information is displayed in a drop-down section of the website under the heading "Lotto Max - Summary".
Renno argues those odds should be better publicized before someone purchases a ticket.
"If you do go to Loto Quebec's website, it's a maze of information before you can even try to find the odds of winning any given lottery, it's information that's three or four pages deep," he said.
He also says the code of ethics published by Loto Quebec requires more transparency from the agency.
For its part, Loto Quebec says each employee is aware of the odds, and will tell them to customers if asked. Spokesperson Patrice Lavoie said one reason odds are not printed on tickets is a lack of space.
"You can find it on the back of our scratch tickets, on our website, if you aska retailar at one of our 8,500 retailers, they can give you the odds of winning as well," said Lavoie. "We have to legally leave a place for if you have to write your name and address on the ticket. We have to give the address to reclaim their prize, so there's not too much room to put other information."
