Ontario Lottery apologizes for false winning tickets

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is apologizing to people who bought more than 1,100 lottery tickets that appeared to be big winners but were actually misprints.

TheStar.com reports that 50 to 150 $3 defective Fruit Smash lottery tickets were sold, making the tickets appear to be winners although they weren't supposed to be. The "winners" will not receive any cash because the law says that misprinted lottery tickets are null and void.

According to TheStar, one man who thought he had won $135,000 Canadian Dollars "had already made plans to move his family out of their basement apartment, send his children to college and live the life he had always dreamed about" by the time he found out that he wouldn't be getting any money. Ouch!

It's a cruel joke for the disappointed ticket buyers, but hopefully it will give lawmakers pause about the future of the lottery, especially since sales have been down lately in the U.S. This guy was living in a basement apartment and didn't have enough money to send his kids to college, but the province was still preying on his desire for a quick buck by selling him lottery tickets. Where is the moral outrage about that?