OLGee wiz!

THURSSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2011 

Final Update (I hope)

I just spoke to the OLG offices, who have agreed to accept:

- my baptism papers
- red and white health card
- City of Toronto photo ID

to prove my age, and:

- lease agreement
- phone bill
- hydro bill

to prove my Provincial residence.

Now, they will only accept these in person (which is a pain in the butt, since I work for a living), but it is OLG's attempt at meeting me half-way in accepting the ID which I have available. I'm not going to bitch, but I'm also not going to be recommending OLG online "services". 

Requiring in-person identity verification for an online purchase defeats the most basic purpose of an online purchase! 

I'll buy tickets for the group out of pocket for this coming week-end draw, and head down to the OLG offices next week (I'll have to book a vacation day to do it since they aren't open on week-ends).

I have to make one final comment though (well there's a surprise!)...

I don't carry a driver's licence because I don't drive. The realities of our world considered, people who live without a personal vehicle should be commended and rewarded, yet at every turn we are treated like second class citizens....whether it is applying for a credit card (if you're an idiot enough to play in the debt-game sandbox) or trying to make a large ticket purchase, not having a driver's license is always met with distrust and suspicion.

Now, I can usually offer alternative ID and always have it accepted more easily than my experience with OLG has suggested, but there is always that stigma attached to explaining that I do not hold a driver's license (or a credit card for that matter - aside from the pre-paid card I obtained for purchasing these blasted tickets inline)

My city of Toronto ID comes in handy for this purpose, since it is generally viewed as a government issued ID and it has a photo, but what if I worked somewhere without employee ID? Simple answer, I'd be screwed.

I often carry around a long expired passport which is usually accepted (not by the OLG btw), but I won't get a new one, as I refuse to be "chipped". This sort of keeps me at home, but what can you do - resistance isn't futile, it's just incovenient. I'll get one when we win the lottery and I relocate to the Cayman Islands.

Now there IS the age of majority card from the LCBO, but I'm a bit embarassed applying for a card intended for teenagers while watching nervously as my 56th birthday sneaks ever closer.

But I DO pay taxes and vote. Maybe it's a time for an "resident ID", showing the standard info you would get from a driver's license - along with a photo. Sure would make voting, applying for a license, buying a home - and buying lottery tickets online - easier, for those of us who look at private vehicle ownership as an unneccessary, wasteful (resource and financial), and near elitist for urban dwellers.

Aside from ego, there is no reason for anyone living and working in a major city to own a car, if they do not use that car to make their living directly (someone has to deliver pizzas). The fact that driver's licenses have become the defacto ID for everyone remains troublesome for those of us who never plan to get one. Transit user cards should offer similar identification value as one gets from a PDL - they USED to have a picture too!

Of course, if government offices actually treated their clients as human beings, while treating guidelines as guidelines rather than carved-in-stone rules, my original ID would have been accepted, and my lottery group would have already been entered in six draws!

Luckily (for OLG), we wouldn't have won anything yet.