Casino News

Class Action Lawsuit vs. Loto-Quebec Claiming Misinformation Turned Down Twice

When it comes to lottery the odds of winning are the same for all participants willing to make a move and purchase their lottery ticket. One Quebec player has been battling for the past nearly three years to receive compensation from Loto-Quebec for her Lotto 6/49 purchases. Martha Karras made an attempt to launch a class-action lawsuit against the corporation but received a No from the provincial Court of Appeal. This is the second time he gets rejected.

Martha Karras, Montreal player who has been especially fond of Lotto 6/49 spend the past two decades purchasing lottery tickets for the game on a regular basis. Lotto MAX was added to her areas of interest fairly recently, in 2012 when she commenced purchasing those tickets as well.

Players Claims Odds Are Slim

This is nothing unusual for many Canadians who have often grown up with the idea that lottery purchases are a regular thing done in anticipation of a big hit that could change their lives. However, while purchasing the tickets, Mrs. Karras claims she was unaware of the odds of winning the Main prize jackpot.

Upon finding out the truth, she decided to launch a CA$150-million class-action lawsuit that could cover every lottery ticket purchased in Quebec between July 2013 and July 29, 2016. Estimations show that this number could reach three million individuals. Within the lines of her demands, the lottery corporation was supposed to return the profits amassed over the said period of time.

In addition to that, she also claimed that the lottery corporation has to pay some CA$150 million in punitive damages. Mrs. Karras pointed out that the lottery corporation fails to properly inform its players about the real odds of Lotto 6/49 and Lotto MAX that could result in an informed choice. However, for the second time, her plans of launching a class-action lawsuit failed to reach far, as Superior Court Justice Pierre Nollet had another perspective.

Superior Court Rejects Class-Action Certification

Maintaining its previous position, that the individual has no right to demand a class-action certification against Loto-Quebec. Among the claims of the lawsuit are statements to the likes of insufficient information regarding the true odds neither online nor on the paper tickets. In response to them, the Superior Court Justice stated that the allegations failed to make clear her point or withstand clear evidence of the opposite.

It was also pointed out that the odds of winning are actually available on the back of every single Lotto MAX and Lotto 6/49 lottery ticket. It could be recalled that August 2016 saw the initial attempt at filing a class-action lawsuit against the lottery corporation. Karim Renno filed the request claiming that even though the odds are printed on the back of the tickets, players must purchase them first in order to have a look at those.

Back then it was revealed that the odds of winning a CA$60-million Lotto MAX jackpot are around the one in 28,000,000 range. What should be taken into account is that May 14 is going to see the first-ever Tuesday Lotto MAX draw which would add a ball with the number 50 to the existing ones, estimated to worsen the odds of winning big.