NLA clamp down on illegal Lotto operators

The National Lottery Authority (NLA) has clamped down heavily on illegal lottery operators, whose activities deprive the state of much-needed revenue for national development according to Goodfellow Dei Ofei; Public Relations Manager at the NLA.

“Over 70% of the lottery space is controlled by private lotto operators, the NLA controls about 25% which is very bad. The private lotto operators don’t pay taxes, while their licenced counterparts pay taxes. We want to sanitize the system” he said.

He explained that the NLA gave ample time during the pre-qualification phase for all operators of private lotto for the 2021 licensing year to register, in order to stop illegal operators in the system.

“Two months ago, management took a decision to licence private lotto operators. In fact, in June when H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo appointed Sammy Awuku, the licence year had expired and unfortunately, we didn’t have a board to help with the issuance of licences.

When the board was finally constituted, we extended an invitation to all private lotto operators to come and register. We initially gave a month for the operators to come for their licence. We added an extra month for them to come for the licence and encouraged private lotto operators to take steps to regularize their operations and warned that effective 1st November 2021, NLA task force will clamp down on all unlicensed lottery operators to sanitize the lotto industry. That is why we are here today” Goodfellow Dei Ofei said.

These stringent measures is to flush out illegal lotto operators, commonly known as ‘Banker to Banker’ from the system.

The NLA is embarking on this action to secure the state from continuously losing revenue for national development to the activities of illegal lotto operators.