The Maine Lottery is a bright spot right now – department revenue is up $600,000 this year – but allegations of poor gamesmanship on scratch tickets requires immediate attention.

Once big prizes on particular scratch ticket games are won, the state says it notifies merchants to cease the games. This doesn’t happen, say many local store owners, who claim they sell scratch tickets until the roll is empty.

What we hope we have here is a simple failure to communicate. Otherwise, tough questions should be asked about the integrity of scratch ticket sales in Maine, and the oversight of the state’s liquor and lottery commission.

Store owners, too, share responsibility for ensuring the tickets sold are the tickets advertised. The core concern is truth in advertising – players should not be fooled into purchasing a ticket for a prize they cannot win.

This is cheating. Though most scratch games have lesser, ancillary prizes besides the grand, it is still unfair to present the possibility of winning an unattainable prize even for the purpose of selling out the roll.

This is a bait-and-switch, a tick above cheating. Since the state will reimburse vendors for unsold tickets, it should more strongly insist games end when they say it’s time.

Maine’s lottery is a policy conundrum. It is state-sponsored gambling, in a state that has chronically opposed every proposed expansion of private gambling, save one. Pro-gambling interests often cite the state’s lottery conflict.

But the lottery is viewed, rightly so, as different from the slot machines and table games private gambling interests wish to offer. The counter arguments, that all proceeds benefit Maine and the games are tightly regulated, are strong.

Unless, of course, there are issues with fairness, like this scratch ticket problem. That the state says it tells vendors to stop ticket sales after the grand prize is gone, but vendors say it doesn’t, so they don’t, is a problem.

Preserving the integrity of scratch ticket games is critical. Vendors seem to misunderstand why games should end when appropriate, and state efforts to stop sales seems to have been too lax.

This process needs strengthening, to ensure the lottery is as fair as possible.