By Christa Delaney
The Ontario Lottery Corporation’s decision to limit individual bets on the Sport Select lottery is getting mixed reactions from Centretown lottery retailers.
Putting a ceiling on bets has lowered lottery profits for some corner store owners like Ali Karimi, owner of the Zesty Market on Elgin Street.
Karimi says there is no question he has lost customers and money as a result of the OLC limit.
“We had one customer who would bet $5,000 at a time,” says Karimi, who has had a terminal in his store for about four years. “There was a lot of money wagered on these games.”
Retailers with Sport Select terminals receive five per cent of each ticket sale. The three games under the Sport Select banner (Proline, Over Under, and Point Spread) had no limit until recently. Players’ bets have now been restricted to a maximum of $100 per day, with a $5,000 daily limit on each store’s terminal.
Don Pister, OLC spokesperson, says the limit was implemented to protect the lottery from a high level of risk. He says some gamblers were putting too much at stake for the game to be viable overall.
“These games were only ever intended to be a low cost form of fun and entertainment,” says Pister. “There were some cases, though, where people were wagering thousands of dollars a day. We can’t accept that level of risk.”
John Ayoub, co-owner of Capital Corner Store on Lyon Street, says the new rules haven’t made a big difference.
“We don’t have a lot of people playing it anyway,” he says. “But some people have wanted to bet more (than the limit) and I can’t let them.”
In order to enforce the limit, the OLC records all terminal transactions through the machine, says Pister. He says he cannot elaborate on other detection methods or the number of retailer infractions.
If retailers are caught ignoring the new regulations, their terminals are shut down for one week. A second violation results in a one-month suspension and a third means loss of the right to sell all lottery tickets for good.
But it’s not easy to remember every customer in a given day, says Karimi, who so far has not had any problems with the OLC.
“I’m afraid of mistakes and trouble (with the OLC),” says Karimi. “Some of my employees have even made mistakes already because they forgot about the new rules.”
Mike Saikaley, manager at the Queensway Fruit Store on Elgin, says the limit has not been an issue because most of his customers place small wagers under $20.
But he adds that he doesn’t work evenings or weekends.
“I don’t know what is encountered at those times,” says Saikaley.
Pister says the OLC realizes it’s difficult to expect a retailer to know everyone who comes through his or her store.
“It’s a matter of what reasonable steps we can take to ensure we don’t get to a level of betting that we never intended to operate,” he says.
The three Sport Select games collectively garner $200 million a year in sales. The popular Proline game alone has taken in $1 billion since it was introduced in 1992.
Pister says the limit will ensure the lottery’s future.
“This is not a unique thing to do for sports wagering,” he says. “It’s common in lotteries across Canada.”
Karimi says it’s unfair of the OLC to put the responsibility of limiting individual betting in the hands of retailers.
“If there are problems, we shouldn’t have to be involved,” says Karimi. “The OLC should take care of it themselves.”
Pister says the OLC is monitoring the limit to see how retailers and customers react to the new regulations.
But for now, store owners who carry the games must keep themselves and their employees within the new boundaries.
“Rules are rules and you have no choice but to follow them,” says Ayoub. “If not, they can just take the machine away.”