程阳：加拿大爱荷华州彩票？！

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爱荷华州彩票安全受质疑

加拿大国家监察员指责爱荷华州彩票不够安全，引发该州彩票公司公开反对
    本报讯（记者聂淼/译）在美国掀起针对零售商欺诈行为的调查时，加拿大相关部门也对本国彩票机构进行调查和研究，日前加拿大爱荷华州国家监察员发表的报告，证实该州彩票零售商的诚信不容乐观估计。
    爱荷华州公民代表、条例草案检查员Angrick说，爱荷华州彩票官员未能充分制止零售商的欺诈和盗窃行为，经过三年调查，他发现当地零售商被大量客户所投诉。
彩票零售商曾遭大量投诉
    一份国家监察员的新报告指出，爱荷华州彩票存在安全隐患，希望采取措施尽快解决。“爱荷华州彩票公司未能充分保护客户不被零售商欺诈和盗窃。”该报告指出。
    爱荷华州的公民助理、检查员Angrick的210页的报告针对彩票安全政策提出60项建议，以帮助其防止零售商欺诈行为。该报告历时一年半，最终在本周二发表。
    Angrick在报告中指出，即使这些投诉零售商诈骗和盗窃的行为存在确凿证据，但是在许多情况下，他们并没有受到追究。检查员发现，一直以来，爱荷华州彩票监管工作十分不力，甚至根本没有独立的客户投诉部门。他补充说，该州可能存在着大规模欺诈行为，只是目前还没有被发现。
    在新闻发布会上，他表示：“我们的调查显示，在该地区内的客户对依靠政府来保护自己利益是非常冷漠的。”他还补充说：“更加不幸的是，当我们试图了解更多情况，比如对盗窃行为有哪些预防措施，得到的答案是‘不是很多’。”检查员说。
    同时，他认为爱荷华州的客户保障体系远远低于加拿大大部分地区的水平。对此，爱荷华州彩票公司公开声明他们已经对此做出了努力。
    调查还发现，至少有9个零售商和店员从欺诈中获得过重大收益，每人曾在2007年的3个月内获得过25万美元收益。
彩票公司反对调查结果
    新的爱荷华州彩票公司首席执行官Terry Rich在一份声明中说：“我赞成将国家检查员办公室的调查公布于众，以便公众立即展开讨论。我们认为这是一个极其严重的问题，必须立即引起爱荷华州注意，使大家能在一个开放、坦诚的环境下，讨论消费者保护问题。”TerryRich在声明中说：“我赞成国家检查员立即将报告公布，我们很高兴看到调查结果，也希望清楚了解到底发生了什么。”
    但他表示国家检查员的调查只是猜测爱荷华州可能存在大规模欺诈行为，但没有确凿证据。他认为：“绝大多数爱荷华零售商和办事员是诚实、重视信誉的，从不诈骗或盗窃。 ”
    TerryRich不同意一些调查结果，他认为国家部门干扰彩票零售业务环境，属于不恰当的政府入侵行为，“去年在爱荷华州发生了1.48亿次交易，而彩票安全部门只对182个进行了调查，调查范围过于狭窄。”

New Report CriticizesIowa LotterySecurityhttp://www.ialottery.com/images/lottery_logo.gif
POSTED: 1:23 pm CDT April 21, 2009
UPDATED: 2:34 pm CDT April 21, 2009

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A new state Ombudsman's report released Tuesday criticizes the lottery security and calls for changes.

"The Iowa Lotteryhas failed to adequately protect its customers from fraud and theft by retailers," stated the report.

The Iowa Citizens’ Aide/Ombudsman's 210-page report makes 60 recommendations to the Lottery on policies and security changes to help prevent retailer fraud. The report was issued after a year and half long investigation.

Ombudsman William P. Angrick II said he plans to hold a news conference Wednesday morning to further discuss the findings of the investigation.

Angrick said he found that customer safeguards in Iowa fell well short of those in place in Canada, despite the Iowa Lottery’s public claims to the contrary.

“I am pleased to see that the Lottery has begun to enact some changes in its security procedures since we began asking questions more than a year ago. These are positive developments worthy of cautious optimism. However, because the Lottery’s response to my report minimizes the significance of its deficiencies, I remain concerned that customers could still be at risk,” said Angrick.

The report states that the Ombudsman found numerous customer complaints where leads went unexplored and potential crimes were not pursued.

The investigation also found at least nine Iowa retailers and store employees who have collected five or more major wins, including a store owner and clerk who each claimed $250,000 prizes in 2007 within three months of one another.

“Many of these were the types of cases where the Lottery investigator would need to ‘make the case,’” the report said. “Most of the time they didn’t even try.”

Lottery Reaction

New Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said he "commended the state Ombudsman’s Office for quickly releasing its report on the lottery so that public discussion of it can begin immediately," in a statement released on Tuesday.

“This is an extremely serious issue, one we believe must immediately be brought to Iowans’ attention so we all can have an open, frank and timely discussion about consumer protection issues in our state,” Rich said, in the statement. “I called last week for the Ombudsman’s Office to immediately release the report and I’m pleased to see that has now happened.”

Rich said that the end result is an Ombudsman Office report that “did not uncover a case of large-scale fraud” involving Iowa’s lottery."

“Another way of putting it is to say that the odds of anyone having a security-related concern about the sale and cashing of lottery tickets in Iowa is about 1 in 813,936,” Rich said.

Look for more on this story on KCCI-TV and here on KCCI.com.