TORONTO - Ontario's opposition parties don't like a new poker-based lottery that started this week.
The Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats both accuse the Liberal government of using the new lottery to squeeze money out of people who can't afford it.
Instead of numbers, Poker Lotto deals symbols of five cards.
Players can win an instant prize of up to $5,000 for a $2 ticket.
The same hand is also good for nightly prize draws of up to $100,000.
Poker Lotto is designed to take money from the poorest Ontarians, said NDP justice critic Peter Kormos.
"It's not the job of the OLG to shake down the Ontario public and this is a shakedown, and the public is not being dealt a fair hand," said Kormos.
"(Premier) Dalton McGuinty sees himself as something of a card shark, but Ontarians should know that he's dealing from the bottom of the deck."
The Tories also questioned the need for a new lottery game, but stopped short of the New Democrats' call for a moratorium on new lotteries until studies are done on the social impact of the games.
"It strikes me that all Dalton McGuinty is interested in is taking more money out of the pockets of Ontario families," said Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.
"We need to make sure we spend on priorities and not go after people for more and more money out of their own pockets."
Ontario Lottery and Gaming says the overall odds of winning the top Poker Lotto prize of $100,000 are approximately one-in-2.6 million.
