Michael Oliveira, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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TORONTO - As many as 1,100 misprinted scratch-and-win lottery tickets were in circulation in Ontario before being recalled, the province's lottery corporation admitted Tuesday as at least one man lamented that his dream of collecting a $135,000 windfall won't likely be realized.

A small percentage of the three million $3 Fruit Smash lottery tickets had some misaligned or mismatched symbols underneath the latex surface that game players scratch away, said Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. spokeswoman Rula Sharkawi.

The error was only caught after ticket buyers complained, the OLG said, and 15 have called in so far.

The misprinted tickets were pulled from stores the same day the first complaint was received, and it's estimated only 50 to 150 of the tickets were actually sold.

Twenty-seven-year-old Thomas Noftall of Brampton, Ont., was beside himself after it appeared he won the top $75,000 jackpot and a combined $60,000 from three other Fruit Smash tickets.

Noftall claims he was initially told by a lottery employee that he would be paid even though it appeared his win wasn't legitimate.

"I was freaked, I started yelling to my wife, 'We really did win, we really did win,"' he told Toronto radio station AM640.

Noftall, who acknowledged he assumed the lottery corporation had legalese in its fine print to protect against misprints, said he's since been told he probably won't get anything at all.

The OLG does have a clause that says it will void tickets for a variety of reasons, including if they are misprinted or produced in error.

Still, Noftall is set to meet with OLG officials on Wednesday.

"Our policy on misprinted tickets is to replace the ticket with a new one or provide a refund to the customer," Sharkawi said.

"(But) we do acknowledge that this has been a difficult and frustrating experience for Mr. Noftall, and we regret the pain that's been caused to him by this rare printing error and any potential miscommunication on our part that may have contributed to his suffering."

Sharkawi said it's not yet clear how many of the 1,100 misprinted tickets might appear to be winning tickets.

Scratching the entire latex surface on a misprinted ticket should reveal it's not a true winner, and it would not scan as a winner at a lottery retailer, she added, but each complaint will be treated and investigated individually.

The entire line of Fruit Smash tickets was not pulled from stores because the proper number of legitimate winning tickets was distributed, the OLG says.

There were three prizes each of $75,000, $25,000 and $10,000 up for grabs.

The odds of winning any of those top prizes are one in a million, while the odds of winning any of the 848,369 lesser prizes with Fruit Smash tickets is one in 3.54, according to the OLG.

The OLG says the misprint error is "extremely rare," and there are extensive quality control and assurance procedures at various stages of the ticket printing process.