Nana Kofi Asabre, Vice Chairman of the Northern Region Lotto Marketing Company (LMC) has advised members to remain united to lure more costumers into patronizing National Lottery Authority (NLA) games.

He said as lotto receivers working to generate money for the development of the country, it was necessary to use unity as a benchmark of attracting more customers to improve sales as their contribution to nation building.

Nana Asabre gave the advice in Tamale on Monday during an annual get-to-gather for members of the LMCs. It was also meant for members to fraternize, take stock of the previous year, and to chart a common path of progress.

He said the contribution of LMCs in generating money for the NLA could not be over emphasized and called for pragmatic measures to be put in place to streamline lotto operation.

Nana Asabre expressed concern about the slashing of commission of its members from 25 per cent to 17 per cent saying, “This is giving room for some of our members to resort to illegal lottery or ‘banker to banker’ operation, which gives instant 30 per cent commission”.

He said it was also important for management of the NLA to pay more attention to the lotto receivers by ensuring that the help desk was always ready to respond to their concerns when they call, saying, “Sometimes we call the help line but they either delay in picking or they don’t pick at all, which frustrates us”.

Mr Caesar Abagali, Northern Regional Manager, Ghana News Agency (GNA) commended the LMC members for their contribution towards nation building and appealed to them to be patient in dealing with their customers to woo more into patronizing NLA games.

Mr Abagali who was the guest of honour advised them to avoid the temptation of patronizing illegal lottery operation because of the higher percentage of the commission, saying, “Though you get less commission from your sales from NLA, you should bear in mind that illegal lotto operators are not contributing to nation building”.

He appealed to the NLA to reconsider increasing the percentage on commission of its agents to ensure that they stopped aiding the illegal lotto operators since they (LMCs) were the same persons engaging in the illegal lotto operations.