News
National lottery sellers slam online lottery
A major protest campaign has been launched by state-run lottery sellers, calling on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to cancel the new online lottery which began operations this week.
The protest came as a major clash was simmering between sellers of the state-run lotteries and the agents of the private online lottery.
Some 45 booths for the new online lottery have been set up in Colombo alongside state-run lottery ticket counters despite objections from the sellers.
A signature campaign has been launched for a petition against the online lottery and it is to be handed over to the President.
Countrywide protests were held by sellers of state-run lotteries this week with the main protest being
held by some 1,500 sellers in Kurunegala where protestors chanted slogans against Trade Minister Jhonston Fernando who is supporting the new online lottery.
“We have lodged a protest with the Government against the decision to permit a private online lottery as it would severely affect the revenue gained by the state run lotteries, but the protests have been ignored,” a senior official of the National Lotteries Board said.He said that last year alone the NLB contributed Rs. 800 million to the Treasury after the payment of prize money and other taxes.
He said one of the issues with the online lottery would be that there would be no system to monitor the revenue collection compared to the national lotteries which came under the supervision of the Finance Ministry and the Auditor General.
Minister Fernando has defended the new lottery saying it would contribute Rs. 500 million annually to the Mahapola Education Fund. He said the company would increase its contribution to Rs one billion in the fifth year of its operation.
Oceanic Games (Private) Ltd has been given management of the Lottery in collaboration with eGame solutions, a Hong Kong-based company.