We will not allow private lotto operators to collapse NLA – PRO

The Head of Public Relations of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) has accused some private lotto operators of seeking to collapse the state lotto regulatory body.

Razak Kojo Opoku in an interview said the operators of Alpha Lotto were not respecting the conditions of the agreement they signed with the Authority.

He noted that the ‘illegal’ acts of Alpha Lotto and some private lotto operators posed a great threat to the NLA and that it was in the interest of the country to crack the whip on them.

Mr Kojo Opoku said Alpha Lotto was operating beyond the terms and conditions upon which the NLA granted them a license and that they have no right to conduct independent live draws parallel to the NLA.

“The license granted Alpha Lotto was for them to use the Point of Sale (POS) terminals to market lotto. Their type of lotto was the Veterans Association of Ghana (VAG) lotto because of the agreement we have with the VAG.

“We gave them the license on that basis and they were to depend on the POS system to sell the lotto and depend on the draws by the NLA”.

He said, “there was nowhere in their contract stated clearly that the private lotto operators can undertake live draws, they should produce that part of the contract to Ghanaians.

“Alpha Lotto was doing it, if you are a good citizen, you won’t conduct yourself in ways that will collapse your regulator.

“NLA is about the draw of numbers, so the moment you allow a private lotto operator to do something parallel to the Authority, the draw of NLA will become useless. If that happens you will collapse the NLA, so should we sit down for NLA to collapse under the NPP government, no way?” he quizzed.

Mr Kojo Opoku revealed that last week, the Ghana Lotto Operators Association levelled some allegations against the NLA that it was seeking to collapse the lottery industry and also outsourcing their mandate to KGL.

He dismissed the allegations and stressed that the Authority was not up for sale and that the move made by the leadership of the NLA was to improve its revenue generation ability.