Credit to RDnewsnow

By Josh Hall/RDnewsnow

Integrity of Friday’s Oilers 50/50 intact as ticket-buyers overcharged

Aug 9, 2020 | 1:05 PM

The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation says unprecedented demand led to its servers being overwhelmed Friday with requests to purchase 50/50 tickets.

“At certain points, demand for tickets exceeded $100,000 per minute,” the foundation says in a release issued Saturday afternoon. “This traffic load caused certain issues including slow loading times, geo-location errors and duplication of some orders. We were able to adjust for capacity throughout the event.”

The foundation notes it is in active dialogue with AGLC, and is working with its service provider, Toronto-based Ascend Fundraising Solutions, to quickly resolve any and all customer issues.

Perhaps most importantly, they add, “The integrity of the draw is intact.”

On Friday evening and Saturday morning, many Albertans flocked to social media to express their dismay and frustration with the raffle, which supports community initiatives in Edmonton and northern Alberta.

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The 50/50 is only open to Alberta residents, many of whom said they’d been overcharged after constantly refreshing the webpage where purchases are made.

“For us, the $200 charge isn’t going to make or break us,” says Red Deerian Melissa Brilz, who’d only thought she’d bought $50 worth. “We said whatever, let’s just let it go, but for the people who apparently had $2,000 charges, that’s huge money.”

Brilz, who has experience in the not-for-profit sector, added that it isn’t fair for people to slam the Oilers Foundation. She says when a charity uses a platform like the one in this situation, you’re at the mercy of its capability.

“I don’t think they anticipated it to be this crazy. My disappointment is the fact that even last night when they knew there were these problems, they still didn’t cut ticket sales off.”

Blackfalds resident Jeff Baker says his credit card was also charged hundreds more than intended. He says his family also isn’t worrying about disputing the charges at this time.

“If anything, it’s just more money that’s going to a lucky individual and more importantly, more money to charity. But I also know some people aren’t in my situation,” he says.

“I was always told that if you can’t afford to lose money, don’t gamble. But this is a different situation. Originally I thought they should refund everything but then that’s a lot of money not going to charity. Hindsight always being 20/20, I do feel that after the demand on Monday for tickets and the sell out on Wednesday they should’ve anticipated something like this when they increased the sales limit on Thursday.”

Another buyer tells rdnewsNOW they were charged 14x what they thought they were purchasing.

Wednesday’s jackpot for game three between the Oilers and Blackhawks topped out at $5.417 million, game two reached $3.259 million, and for game one, the pot was just over $762,000.

If anyone who bought tickets has questions or concerns, they can contact

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