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NLA to take action against illegal lotto operator

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The National Lottery Authority (NLA) is a statutory regulatory body created by Parliament of Ghana through the passage of National Lotto Act in 2006. The authority was vested with the power to operate and regulate lottery within the territory of the republic of Ghana.

In recent times, the National Lottery Authority has been compelled to take legal action against some entities operating illegal lottery games and have received favorable verdicts from the courts in these cases.

This recent action of the NLA is due to violation of the national lotto Act 722, by some telecommunication institutions. These operators organize promotional bonanzas in lottery games under the guise of ‘consumer promotions’. 

These illegal practices though very visible with the mobile network operators, cuts across all industries including finance, insurance, banking and content providers. The operations are increasing at an alarming rate.

The nation has lost an estimated 100million Ghana cedis per annum in revenue, due to such operations. We ask, what has triggered this increment in illegal lottery games practice.

The authority is worried about the recent practice where organizations apply to the gaming commission for permits to operate lottery scheme. According to them, the gaming Act of 2006, Act 721 does not authorize the gaming commission to issue permits for lottery schemes. 

But under the gaming Act, the gaming commission only has the statutory authority to issue annual license to companies in the business of operating games of chance and not short- term or game by game permits. 

All persons or groups of persons, who are currently in the process of or hope to operate, launch or market any such consumer promotions are advised by the National Lotteries Authority, to desist from it.

Any such attempts should be channeled through the NLA.

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