Private lotto operators demand licensing fees refund
The Ghana Lotto Operators Association is asking the government to immediately conduct investigations at the top hierarchy of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) for alleged collection of money from private sector operators for licences that have not been issued.
The lotto operators said the NLA used official means to allegedly extort millions of cedis from private lotto operators by deceiving them to pay money running into several millions of cedis under the pretext of licensing private sector operators to use NLA drawn numbers.
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The lawyer of the lotto operators, Mr Ato Conduah, at a press conference in Accra, said the NLA unlawfully collected GH¢1 million from 24 operators; GH¢5,000 each for lotto agents and GH¢1,800 from lotto writers, in addition to GH¢5 million worth of bank/insurance guarantees from operators who intended to operate nationwide.
However, the Public Relations Officer of the NLA, Mr Razak Kodwo Poku, has dismissed the claims, insisting that whatever levies collected from the operators were legal and was intended to register them and give them the licence to do legitimate business in the industry.
But lawyers for the operators insist that “The action that saw levies being collected from operators so they could be issued with licences has been found to be a hoax designed to fleece them of their capital, seize their legally-acquired drawing machines for VAG Lotto with the intention of making them bankrupt permanently.”
However, a year later, Mr Conduah said, no receipts had been issued for the millions of cedis collected by the NLA or a memorandum signed to that effect, although the association had made several attempts which yielded no fruits.
He condemned what he said was an unlawful attempt to collect all private sector operators’ draw machines, equipment and operating systems, after deceiving them into demonstrating their self-acquired systems or platforms to the NLA.
He asked for the interdiction of the Director-General of the NLA, Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, and the refund of the millions of Ghana cedis collected from operators.
VAG-NLA conflict
In June last year, the VAG ceded its operations to the NLA.
Per the agreement, VAG ceases to issue licences to lotto operators in a move to enable the NLA assume overall control over lotto licencing and regulations in the country.
VAG also gave a six-month grace period to all operators under its control to quit operations and rather register with the NLA.
The National Lotto Act 2006 provided for the establishment of the NLA to regulate, supervise, conduct and manage national lotto and related matters.
However, the VAG Act, (Act 844, 2012) also mandates the Veterans Administration to hold lottery and gaming activities to lotto operators while issuing licenses to them.
Debts
The VAG agreement/ licence, Mr Conduah said, compelled operators to contract huge loans and make significant investments in software and hardware to start VAG Lotto operations, but could not operate due to the NLA’s legal battles with VAG.
He said the NLA’s plan to maintain a permanent monopoly over lottery in Ghana by subjugating all private lotto operators to become ‘lotto marketing licencees’ to sell for NLA would not work.
NLA reacts
According to the public relations manager of the NLA, it did not recognise private lotto operators.
Mr Poku said from the authority’s assessment of persons who registered with it, only 10 operators qualified and they were asked to submit data on their agents, locations and backgrounds.
He said subsequently, the authority asked the security services to conduct a thorough background check on them as the possibility existed that some people could be using lottery as a conduit for money laundering.
Those who were cleared in that background check, Mr Poku indicated, were given seven days to come and sign and acquire their licences.
On the VAG issue, he said the VAG was not in a position to grant licences to lotto operators although Act 844 granted them the right to operate lotteries and raffles.
Mr Poku said the agitating lotto operators wanted to continue their old system where they were not accountable to anybody because their lotteries were written on paper and their finances could not be traced.
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“If you want government to licence you, it must see your revenues in real time, that it cannot do, if you write on paper.
We want them to use machines so that they can be checked in real time,” he said.