Lotto Operators and Writers in Ghana are against plans by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to reduce their commission from its current 30 to 20 per cent.

The Lotto Act, Act 722 gives the NLA Board the discretion to decide the commission for lotto writers.

Since 1962, when the lottery was introduced in Ghana, the commission has been at 30 per cent.

In an interview on the sidelines of a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, Deputy Secretary of Ghana Lotto Operators Association, Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah, told JoyNews that the NLA has to reconsider its decision.

“This is so unfortunate, things are tough in recent times and prices of goods are on the hike at these crucial times at least if for anything the commission should rather increase but now we are bringing it down to 20 per cent. It is not going to go well,” he said.

The Association says such a decision if implemented would worsen the current economic hardships of the lotto operators and writers.

They rather want an increment to 40 per cent due to the current economic difficulties.

But the National Lotteries Authority has refuted the claims. The Public Relations Officer for the Authority, Goodfellow Dei Ofei said any lotto operator has not been asked to reduce the commission of its writers.

“We pay 20 per cent to the LMCs so if we leave a market in which people decide to pay a certain percentage of Commission to themselves without complying with the law, we thought that it was unfair.”