Response from Manitoba Lotteries Re: Video Screem Lotto Terminals

Well I got a quick response on the e-mail I sent to Manitoba lotteries regarding the safety/privacy issues of the lotto ticket display screens. Here it is:

Dear Mr. Korol:

Thank you for your recent
e-mail.

Western Canada Lottery Corporation recently replaced
its 14-year-old ticket terminals which had exceeded their life
expectancy. Although the old machines generated a validation slip
for the player, the information regarding wins was only in view of the person
operating the terminals. There was considerable public demand for
something that could be immediately seen by both the consumer and retailer at
the same moment, so that there would be no opportunity for a retailer to
misrepresent the prize information on a ticket. The consumer display units
were designed to provide win information in the bottom 20% of the screen – large
enough that it can be easily seen, but not taking up the entire screen.
The message appears for only 6 seconds. The winning sound plays so that
even if the consumer is distracted away from the monitor – they will know they
are entitled to a prize.

The decision to place consumer
display units in retail and the decisions around what that display should look
like, were carefully researched and considered by many parties.
Safety concerns were certainly part of the discussions in the design of the
consumer display units. Similar units have been in use in Ontario and
British Columbia for several years and there have been no incidents regarding
personal safety in relation to these machines in either jurisdiction.

The decision to use the display and sound were in the
interest of transparency and direct communication to our players. I
appreciate your concerns and certainly do not want you to feel uncomfortable
when validating your tickets. There are many ways to check your tickets
other than through the terminal. There are self-serve Ticket Checkers at
retail locations, the winning numbers line, the WCLC website, and the daily
newspapers. Soon the Self-serve ticket checkers will be capable of
checking instant tickets as well as on-line. If you win a prize in excess
of $1000 it must be claimed through WCLC and there is no need to have it checked
by the terminal. If you have won a prize under $1000, you can also claim
it through WCLC, either in person or through the mail. Although I
understand that convenience may be an issue, another option would be to take the
ticket to another location where you feel more secure.

Thank
you again for your correspondence.

I agree that something needed to be done, but I still say this is the wrong way to go about it. She said the screens only take up %20 percent of the display. Have you seen those screens. They are a pretty good size. Also, there is a "winning sound" that is heard so if the customer is distracted (not paying attention), their attention will be brought to the screen and they will know they won. That doesn't address my privacy issue one bit. Everyone else in line gets their attention drawn to the screen too and gets to see the %20 percent of the screen that tells how much you've won. There's that safety issue again too because there's a guy standing by the door pretending to talk on his cell phone, not paying attention, ready to mug you for your winnings. Ok, it's not likely, but possible. They said that this was all researched by many different parties. Being an ex-university student with a strong focus in research, it would be interesting to know who did this research and what exactly their research papers said. I think I'll ask them that.I will respond back to them soon as soon as I have some time. I'll be sure to post my letter and any response I get.

Do your really think I'm going to go to the Manitoba lotteries office to cash in my $10 dollar ticket, or dive half way across town to a different location where I feel safer?....Come on.....really! Do you think I'm going to do that?

Why Lotto Ticket Display Screens Are Unsafe

Have you seen the new video lotto ticket terminals in the stores? If not this is how it works. When you give your lotto ticket to the clerk at the store, she checks it, and if it's a winning ticket, it displays on the screen (for everyone to see) that you are a winner. If that's not bad enough, it tells you how much you've won.
My first concern is that I will win a hundred bucks, it will be announced for everyone to hear and, see, the clerk will give me my money, and I'll walk out of the store and get mugged. I would think this would be even more of a concern to the elderly.

Oh and if this isn't bad enough, I asked the clerk at my corner store if the customer could request that the winning ticket not be announced. She explained that when the screen was getting installed, the worker told her that it cannot be shut off. She then told me that one guy won $650 and it showed that amount on the screen. That is unacceptable if you ask me. I don't want anyone to know that I have that much in my wallet.

According to the CBC story from their website is is to protect consumers from fraud. We've all heard the story of the clerk who scans a winning ticket and tells the customer wasn't a winner, then pockets the money.

I've written a letter to the Manitoba lotteries commission concerning this so we will have to see what kind of response it will bring (if any).

Here it is:

I am writing to you to express my concern over the new video lotto
terminals that have been installed in every store that sells lotto
tickets. I believe these to be an invasion of privacy and I also think
them to be unsafe and socially irresponsible on your part. I realize that
these were put in place to help prevent lottery scams (clerks saying tickets are
not winners when they actually are), but I believe a different system would be
more appropriate.

My first concern is that it’s no one’s
business if I won on a lotto ticket and how much I’ve one. I can’t believe
that you would even consider posting that for the whole store to see.

Secondly, because this information is posted for everyone to see,
I believe this system to be unsafe. You have provided criminals with yet
another avenue to pursue their career. How long do you think it will be
before someone wins on a lotto ticket, walks out of the store, and gets
mugged? There are a lot of elderly people you buy lottery tickets (my
guess is close to a majority of your sale) who wouldn’t stand a chance of
defending themselves. Did anyone address this issue when this idea for
video terminals came about? My guess is yes but for some reason it didn’t
matter. Maybe this whole thing is to cover your own behinds (lawsuits,
etc).

The video terminal should at least be able to be turned off
at the request of a customer (your customers). From what I understand this
is not possible. That is unacceptable.

Better yet, instead of
a terminal where everyone can see, why not a hand held thicket checker (similar
to a hand held debit machine). This way, the customer can inform the clerk
that they would like to check a lotto ticket. The clerk could hand the
hand held scanner to the customer, and the customer can check his ticket
himself. This way, the clerk doesn't even have to touch the ticket.
If it’s a winner, only the clerk and the customer will know. The clerk can
had over the cash, the customer can hand over the ticket, and all is
well.

I personally will not be purchasing any lotto tickets until
this matter has been fixed and will do everything possible to bring this
privacy/safety issue to as many people as possible

Thank you for
your time.

If you are concerned and would like contact them here is the information.

Manitoba Lotteries Corporation Phone: (204) 957-2500Fax: (204) 957-3991Email: mailto:carbotb@mlc.mb.ca

For western Canada: Western Canada Lottery Corporation Corporate Communications 6910-50th Avenue Postal Bag 649 Stettler, AB T0C 2L0 1-800-665-3313

Ontario Lotteries contact info

Atlantic Canada Lotteries contact info

That's all folks

We Bought our first House Yesterday (how I got a huge deal)

Well, we finally decided to do it. We bought our first house and we move in around the beginning of June. We are moving from a 600 sq. ft. 2 bedroom house (no livable basement) to an 1180 sq. ft. house with a full basement. The house we're in now was fine when we where in university and not in the house much, but now we are expecting our second child and we are over crowded and cluttered. It will be a little weird when we first move in because we don't think we have enough stuff to fill it. It will, however, be a great opportunity to get our household re-organized.

Ok, so what did I learn:

I learned that it is still possible to buy a house in this market and get less than asking price (we got ours for $4 000 less). If you are familiar with the Canadian market, you'll know that it is "hot" and some would say out of control. Here in Winnipeg, houses are selling $15 000 to $45 000
more than the asking price. I don't even want to talk about B.C or Alberta. Take this link to see an over view of how much average house prices are from Province to Province. You'll notice that these prices are from July 2007. In the Winnipeg area my real estate agent told me that prices increased 13% over the last year and is expected to increase another 11% over the next. That's huge!
How did we get our house for less? We were the only bidders. We didn't originally bid because we felt that once all the bidding was done, it would be way out of our price range. We got a call on the day of bidding, wanting to know if we would like to bid because no one else bid. Blah, blah, blah........we got the house. Why, you ask, were there no bidders on the house? Well, there is some sloping in the kitchen floor that probably scared everyone away. When we went to have a second look at the house, the owner happened to be home. I asked about it, and she said that the teleposts need to be adjusted (posts in the basement that hold up the house). She hasn't been able to take care of it because she's been sick and out of the country. I went down stairs and had my wife knock on the peak of the slope (it's actually a hump). Sure enough, the teleposts are right in the middle of the hump. Teleposts are made so they can be lowered because houses and foundations often float and the posts need to be adjusted. So....we bought it and got way more house than we thought we would be able to considering the market we are in, and I can fix the problem for free.
I potentially saved $25 000 to $45 000 because people looked at the "hump" and ran away. They clearly didn't know what to look for. I didn't either until I asked the owner.

I also learned that when you're the only bidder, that is the time to ask for extra. We got them to throw in the fridge, stove, and dishwasher (worth about $3 000) and we got the possession date moved 2 months earlier than the owner wanted.

So.....Check out those "big" problems when looking for a house. They might not be as big as they look and you'll get the house cheaper. Also, if you're the only bidder, you pay less and you can ask for those "extras". Oh....and if you can, talk to the owner and ask lots of questions.

That's all folks

Free Money Finance Blog used my story!

I was doing my daily blog reading and I was over at the Free Money Finance blog. The folks over there like to link to useful posts from last year. Well, I checked out one of the articles called "Saving Money, Making Kids Rich, Hated Taxes and More!" To my suprise, I found a quote by me. It doesn't actually say that it's me but it is (no really). The post link on the page is called "Save Big Money by Talking About What You're Planning to Buy". I'll let you go over and read what it's about. I explained the story in more detail last year as well. I don't know, it felt kinda cool for a small time blogger like me to be on a great blog like that.



If your looking for another blog to add to your daily reading, I recommend you give Free Money Finance a try!

How I saved $1800 a year by eating leftovers.

Have you ever thought about how much you spend on lunch at work? I work in the restaurant business where, of course, there is a never ending supply of food. We do have to buy our meals but we get 50% off our meals, which usually comes to about $7.00. Sounds cheaps for some decent food right. Well, maybe not. Let's have a look at it over time.
$7.00 five times a week is $35.00. Multiply that by 52 weeks is $1820 a year.
I figured this a couple of weeks ago and stopped taking taking my lunch to work. What do you do if you have no leftovers. Cook up a can of soup the night before and pack some bread and some fruit. Most people have something they could bring, it just takes some imagination.

If you buy your lunch regularily, try taking leftovers for 2 weeks. You'd be suprise at the difference it actually makes...

Focus on what you want (and a good quote)

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” - Buddha

Where ever we "are" right now in life is a direct result of what we "were" thinking in the past. What ever we 'will' be in the future is a product of what we "are" currently thinking.

I found a great article over at Zen Habits called the Magical Power of Focus. It's a good one that I recommend everyone read.

One of my problems in reaching my goals is that I have to many of them. I want to make the cut for the provincial amateur in golf, finish writing a new CD, work out regularly, read, work more on my shirt business, and on top of all the other things I think about doing, I want to spend time with my family. Can you see where my problem is? I have a wife and child (with another one on the way), and I also work a full time job. There just isn't enough time for me to do everything. Life is full of great things to do and experience, so it's only natural to want to try a great many things. The problem is that if you are trying to do too many things at once, you will never accomplish anything.

So, I've decided to try and solve this problem.
Here's what I did...

1. Wrote down everything that I want to do.
2. Prioritized my wants.
3. Wrote down everything that I have to do in a day or a week. This includes making supper, driving my some to daycare, etc.
4. Opened my calender in Microsoft Outlook. A day timer book would do just as well. The key is to be able to view the week in one shot.
5. I then filled in every thing that I have to do in the appropriate times (I tried to include absolutely everything).
6. I took my list of wants and began filling in the spaces. I started with the things that were most important to me. Spending time with my family (I set aside time every day for this). Next was spending time with my wife (a date night or just time set aside to watch a movie or something at least once a week). Golf was next. One of my goals is to make the Amateur cut in my province. It's winter here right now (that means snow for us) so I scheduled at least a half an hour three days a week. Working out is in for 45 min. four times a week. And on and on.
7. I also made sure to schedule free time in as well. This is very important. We need time to do what ever we want to. If I have things that I may have to do some days (my wife is on call a lot so some days I have to spend 45 min after work to pick up my son from daycare) then I schedule them everyday. If I end up not having to do that then I can have some free time, or get a head start on other stuff and save it for a little later.
8. I had to cut some things from my list. It's not to say I'll never do these things, but I just want to do other things more.

By doing this, I quickly realized that I would not be able to do everything I wanted. I had to remove starting up an Internet radio station from my list. I used to run one a couple of years ago and I really miss it. The only things is, there is other stuff that I want more and a radio station just take too much time right now. It can be tough to throw things on that back burner for a while but that's where the focus thing comes in. Obviously other things will come up (as we are buying a house soon and will have to go look at some). If my wife works on our date night (wednseday) I'll switch my thursday plan to wednesday and "poof there it is", we have date night on thursday. I'll have to be flexible to a degree but the key is that I have a game plan and most nights I'll be able to focus on the things I want.

By making this schedule I've allowed myself time in the week or day were I can focus on the things I really want and concentrate on them for a while. This is where I've always had trouble. I'd have some free time, but wouldn't know what to do. Now, I've already decided what is important to me, and what is not important enough. I know what I want to focus on and what my time allows me to focus on. There's no hesitations now. It's scheduled and I just focus.

Maybe this will work for you, or maybe you'll find a better system. One thing I know is that if we aren't focusing our thoughts (or our time) on what we want in the future we will never get those things.

Goodbye Dad...Thanks for showing me that people are good!

My dad past away about 3 weeks ago. He has been fighting cancer for 13 years and it turned into an aggressive strain in November. He deteriorated very fast over the last 3 weeks and it finally got him. It's hard to believe that we'll never see him again. He will be missed dearly...

Something has happened to me since dad died. I've found a renewed faith in people. Everyone has been so kind and generous. It totally caught me off guard. People I haven't seen in a long time just seemed to come out of the woodworks to show their support. One girl at work even took up a collection from our staff to help make up for the time I had off work. It actually made me cry.

I've changed now, I can feel it. I have a brand new respect for people. I can tell you that it feels good to be reminded that people aren't always just out for themselves. It also reminds me that maybe there is more that I can do for others in times of trouble. I think it's important for us all to be reminded of that. We've all had someone help us when we've really needed it. Do you remember how it made you feel? I do, and I will return the favor as often as I can to let others know that they aren't alone in this journey (sometimes battle) of life. Are you feeling down. Go help someone, I guarantee it will make you feel good.

Thanks for another lesson Dad. I don't think I'll ever stop learning from you. I love you!