A season-ticket holder since the 1970s, Anne Elliott knows well the soaring hopes and dispiriting lows that come with being a lifelong Maple Leafs fan.

Here’s one of her highs: on Nov. 22, 2011, Elliott won the nightly 50/50 draw, a mainstay lottery at hockey games across the country, in which half the pot goes to the winner and the other half is donated to charity.

Her take that night: a cool $6,611.98.

“I jumped up and ran down screaming and everything,” the North Toronto mother of two recalls. “It was a good Christmas.”

Not too shabby, right?

Phil Moore has a slightly better story to tell. The Vancouver real estate agent won the same contest at the Canucks home opener on Jan. 21. His take? A whopping $146,838.

There’s no denying it. The pot is paltry in Toronto. But why?

“I guess Toronto people are a little tighter with their wallets,” says Moore, chuckling. He was so happy with the windfall he decided to give back $25,000 — more than four times Elliott’s total winnings — to a Canucks children’s charity.

But the big winners aren’t only in Vancouver. They’re just not here.

While the average jackpot last season at Canucks games was more than $76,000, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg gave out prizes that averaged more than three times the roughly $10,000 Toronto paid out to its winners. Even the Ottawa Senators had 50/50 payouts last season nearly double the Air Canada Centre average.

The explanation of why the Leafs come in last involves an unfortunate cocktail of arcane government regulations, fumbled execution and a stuffy arena culture where high prices encourage closed wallets.

“Here we are, the richest team in the league, in the wealthiest city probably in the country, and that’s the story,” says Elliott upon being told how much more her winning ticket would be worth nearly anywhere but here.

The average pot puts Toronto in the same league as junior franchises such as the Moncton Wildcats and Moose Jaw Warriors. Both teams regularly give out $10,000 jackpots despite playing in rinks with one-third the capacity of the ACC.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” says Elliott. “I feel embarrassed for Toronto.”

On a positive note, Toronto does far better at 50/50 draws than the Montreal Canadiens. But that’s because bingo halls are the only places allowed by law to host those types of contests in Quebec.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment blames the gap in payouts on the province’s take on a federal Criminal Code section that deals with charities and electronic gaming. Essentially, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has a stricter approach to the law than the rest of the land, denying the use of new computer-based 50/50 systems that have received the legal green light out west and in the Maritimes.

At junior and NHL games elsewhere, 50/50 ticket vendors carry mobile devices that print out and tally tickets, giving volunteers more time to sell them. The growing jackpot is updated in real time and displayed on screens in the arena.

When the Oilers went electronic in December 2011, they saw average pots double to $56,000. Other teams experienced bumps of more than 30 per cent.

“I would be ecstatic if we could get towards electronic and get to a new age,” says Mike Bartlett, executive director of MLSE’s Team Up Foundation, which organizes 50/50s for the Leafs, Marlies, Raptors and TFC. “It’s a missed opportunity.”

The AGCO wouldn’t explain what harm would come from the use of electronic ticket devices, other than to say it’s confident machines are not permitted.

“I can’t speak to how other provinces might have interpreted the Criminal Code,” says AGCO spokesperson Lisa Murray. “We’ve interpreted the relevant sections, and we are satisfied the legal advice is correct.”

But there’s more to the Leafs’ shrunken pots than red tape and archaic selling methods. Even if an electronic system doubled average winnings, Vancouver’s would still be three times bigger. And Ottawa is operating under the same rules as Toronto but doing considerably better.

Bartlett says he can’t explain why the Leafs pots are so small, but affirms the lottery is a true 50/50, with half the proceeds going to the winner, half to charities and Team Up in a “70-30 split.”

Moore, winner of the biggest ever Canucks 50/50 draw, offers an intriguing explanation. “You guys pay more for tickets,” he says, “so I think people here spend more money at the hockey game.”

Leafs game tickets are notoriously expensive. According to a 2011 report by Chicago’s Team Marketing Research, Leafs tickets on average went for more than $120, nearly double the price for Calgary Flames seats. Items such as parking, food and drinks at Leaf games were all found to be among the highest in the NHL.

After forking over that cash, maybe it’s understandable that there isn’t much interest in paying to play 50/50 — even if one suspects a sizeable chunk of the suit-clad crowd at the ACC gets tickets on the company dime.

Raffle vendors recognize the dearth of 50/50 enthusiasm at Leafs games. “The ACC isn’t the easiest arena to do 50/50 in,” says Glenn MacDonnell, president and CEO of Special Olympics Ontario, one of Team Up’s partner charities.

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He prefers Senators games, because he’s found more foot traffic between periods and easier access to seating areas taken up by corporate boxes in Toronto.

Elliott is a long-time 50/50 participant, but even with her trained eye she says it’s often hard to spot the ticket sellers. “They don’t come down into the seating,” she says. “I honestly think two-thirds of the people don’t know what it is.”

She pledges to help keep the program running, though.

“We won’t stop buying tickets,” she says, “as long as we can find someone to buy them from.”

AVERAGE JACKPOTS (2011-12)

Vancouver Canucks

$76,543 (capacity: 16,966)

Edmonton Oilers

$45,000 (16,839)

Winnipeg Jets

$42,000 (15,004)

Calgary Flames

$36,000 (19,289)

Ottawa Senators

$18,200 (19,153)

Toronto Maple Leafs

$10,970 (18,800)

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