Eight lotto operators were arrested on Saturday for selling illegal lotto coupons popularly known as ‘banker-to-banker’. They were picked up from their various points of operation at Teshie-Nungua, and are expected to be sent to court next week. A police source said they had since been granted police enquiry bail. The source said seven other illegal operators who were arrested on June 8, from Madina are also to be put before court next week. A joint Police-National Lotteries Authority (NLA) team which undertook the operation seized plain banker-to-banker lotto coupons, record books and money from the suspects. Briefing The Ghanaian Times newspaper on Tuesday, Mr. Andrew Tuah, NLA sales manager in charge of the Southern Sector, said the exercise formed part of the NLA's campaign to sanitise the country’s lottery industry. He said the NLA has intensified the campaign to crack down on banker-to-banker operators, 33 of whom were arrested on June 15 in Accra and Swedru in the Central Region. Some of them have since been put before court. Although Section 4 of the National Lotto Act gives the NLA the exclusive right to operate lotto in the country, Mr. Tuah said the activities of the banker-to-banker operators have become rampant. He said their activities are not sanctioned by law, therefore, cause loss of revenue to the state since they do not pay tax. “We have given them enough time to stop, but they are recalcitrant,” Mr. Tuah said, adding that there has been enough education on the benefits of patronising the NLA, lotto. Mr. Tuah said it has come to the notice of the NLA that some of its agents have been operating the banker-to-banker lotto alongside the NLA lotto and warned such people to desist from the practice or have their licenses revoked. Source: The Ghanaian Times/Ghana