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The fifth estate asked the OLG to break down Insider Wins into retailer type - a statistic which could provide better information about which Insiders may be winning the most. The OLG breaks down its retailers into 12 different retailer types. For example, one retailer type is convenience store [independent], another is supermarket.
In an October 20, 2006, email the OLG provided the fifth estate with what it said was the number of retailers and clerks affected by the "Insider Win" policy - but it failed to enumerate how many Insiders had won in each category.
If the OLG had provided this information, then any difference
of opinion about the number of retailers and clerks could be cleared up
immediately, says Professor Jeffrey Rosenthal. "Such confusion could
be avoided if we knew which insider wins correspond to which store type,
but unfortunately OLG has not yet provided that information," he
says.
The fifth estate has repeatedly asked OLG officials to provide the information,
both before and after our broadcast, but they have repeatedly refused
to do so, despite those numbers being readily available.
Using exemptions provided under the Freedom of Information Act, the OLG has also withheld:
The records, the letter states: "do not include the insider win forms or approval checklists for instant games…and for a number of on-line games."
The fifth estate also learned that the biggest anomaly of Insider Wins comes from the Instant Win category. "For the instant games during this period, the insiders won over 10 times as many major prizes as expected, and the probability of this happening by chance alone was....an unimaginably small figure," says Professor Jeffrey Rosenthal of the University of Toronto.
The fifth estate has asked the OLG about the missing forms and so far, no explanation has been provided. We are still waiting for this and other information form the OLG, and we will keep you posted.
We also needed to know the number of retailers and clerks but discovered that the OLG did not have that data. They did not keep track of all their retailers and clerks. Nevertheless, Alex Campbell, a senior OLG official, testified during the Bob Edmonds trial that there were approximately 50,000 to 60,000 clerks and retailers in Ontario. (see the testimony)
A few days before our broadcast, on October 20, 2006, the OLG said it
did have a breakdown of what it said was the number
of clerks and retailers. This number (over 140,000) is more than
double what they testified in court (60,000 see above) and it does not
correspond with the fifth estate's own research.
Nevertheless, we asked Professor Rosenthal to crunch these last-minute
numbers as well. Take a look at his entire
report.
