The National Lottery Authority (NLA) is doing all within its power to get all unlicensed and illegal lotto operators registered and incorporated into the legal lottery sector in order to help generate revenue to support government in its national development agenda.

When illegal lotto agents are integrated into the system through registration, government will have no cause to worry over accumulation of funds for projects because extra revenue will be generated from the lottery sector to subsidise the available fund.

This is because, revenue lost through tax evasion by illegal lotto operators will be regulated through the public-private partnership.

These were disclosed by the Director General of the NLA, Mr. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw when a new group of operators, the Association of NLA Licensed Banker to Banker Agents and Operators called on him to formally introduce themselves.

Emphasising the need for all unlicensed operators to partner the authority in order to obtain a licence and operate within the laws, Mr. Osei-Ameyaw commended the group for the initiative, adding that the NLA’s doors are open to other operators to enable the Authority to streamline the lottery business for all parties.

According to him, it is the responsibility of the NLA to mobilise fund through the game of lotteries so as to support the government in its development agenda, therefore the need to regulate the sector by bringing licensed and unlicensed banker-to-banker operators under one umbrella.

This, he said, will create a level playing ground for all parties in the sector where no one evades tax and enough revenue will be generated.

“We have been deliberating on how Banker-to-banker operators and NLA can work together. That is to licence banker-to-banker operators regionally for them to be able to pay a licence fee and registration fees to at least make some payment to government in the form of revenue or taxes so that monies they make out of banker-to-banker, government gets its fair share of the revenue,” Mr. Osei-Ameyaw stressed.

He reiterated that the authority will not tolerate anyone who disobeys the law because there are laws binding everyone in the lottery business.

“The lotto marketing companies are the ones that are licence by law. In the case of banker to banker, they have existed for a very long time and we have come to the realisation that unless we incorporate them through private/public partnership agreement we will not be able to move forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kofi Osi-Ameyaw said, he will on August 15, 2017, separately meet with lotto operators to discuss the proposals on a Public private partnership with them.

Briefing the Director General of NLA, Mr. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw on the reason for forming the association, CEO of Super4 Intelic Ltd, Mr. David Offei Agyekum said the group was formed following issues raised at the stakeholder forum held by the Authority on Tuesday, July 25, 2017.

At the forum which was attended by over 500 Unlicensed Lotto Operators, Lotto Writers, Retailers and Lotto Marketing Companies to interact with the Director-General of NLA and deliberate on ways to address the imbalances in the lottery industry, directives were given to all illegal operators to acquire licence and operate within the laws in order to help generate more revenue and create jobs for national development.

Mr. Offei Agyekum thanked the Director-General for giving unlicensed lottery operators the opportunity to be registered to operate within the law and called on other unlicensed operators to take advantage of the opportunity given them to be regularized.