National Lottery guilty of deception: Supreme Court

The Dutch national lottery, Staatsloterij, deceived the public between 2000 and 2008, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The lottery was found to have included misleading statements about ticket-holders' odds, and both the number and size of prizes up for grabs. The case against the lottery was spearheaded by the Loterijverlies.nl foundation. The trial was prompted by the discovery that the lottery was including all unsold tickets in the draw, thus significantly reducing the chance that customers could win. “The odds were truly smaller than consumers thought. Therefore, deception is there,” the court said in a statement. “That other lotteries also did this, as the Staatsloterij maintains, does not change that.” With the ruling, the Loterijverlies.nl foundation will have an adequate base to start recovering funds for over 100,000 of its participants, reported ANP.