Woman gets allegedly stolen $80K lottery

TORONTO, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Canada's Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation has given a Toronto-area woman an $80,000 prize allegedly stolen by a ticket vendor in 2004.

Jaime Antinori told the Toronto Sun she got a phone call from OLG saying they were giving her the prize as the person she asked to check the ticket was charged and is now before the courts.

The corporation launched an "insider win" investigation months ago when it came to light a disproportionate number of lottery vendors were winning prizes. The most common practice was for ticket sellers to distract the customer checking their tickets and then scan a ticket they knew wasn't a winner, holding back the customer's.

OLG spokeswoman Teresa Roncon told the Sun because the matter is still in court, she couldn't reveal how investigators were able to identify Antinori.

"We are currently looking at all large insider wins since 1995," Roncon said. "This is as much a win for our investigators as it is for Mrs. Antinori."