MANY lottery operators across the country are having a field day no thanks to the rather slack regulatory regime, The Nation has learnt.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that while majority of the operators are declaring hefty profits, this is rather at the detriment of the government as well as the majority stakers who gain little or nothing from their investments.
Records from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics in 2019, records show that over 21 million Nigerians played sports betting daily, whilst over six million play number lottery daily. On average, over 27 million people, over 10% of the Nigeria’s population, play a game or the other every day. This is however exclusive of those millions of people who play promotional games reeled out by telecommunication companies, banks and the big FMCG brands which are also meant to be regulated by the National Lottery Regulatory Commission.
The global online gaming market is forecast to reach $128 billion by 2026 and the House of Representatives in the 8th National Assembly recently revealed that some lottery operators were owing the government as much as $16 billion dollars in unpaid remittances.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that roughly 60 million Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 40 are involved in active sports betting. Over 2 billion Naira ($5.9 million) is spent on sports betting daily in Nigeria, which translates to nearly $2.2 billion per annum.
Little wonder the Honourable Minister of Special Duties described the lottery industry as a goldmine for Nigeria during a recent visit to the office of the National Lottery
Regulatory Commission, which is one of the agencies under his supervision. Senator Akume had said: “The President, Muhammadu Buhari, has made his commitment to lifting over 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years and your commission is in a position to play a major role. If this commission is properly organised, I believe, and strongly too, that there’s no way you can’t rake in billions of naira to the coffers of this government. You have told me and others who are experts have also told me that the possibilities here are huge and enormous.”
Tales of woes
Speaking with a cross section of respondents, most of who are lottery patrons, they lamented that the gains they have made over the years is not commensurate with the monies they have staked thus far.
Checks by The Nation revealed that by the letters of the Lottery Act operators are to keep 30% of their total sales revenue for their operations, while they are to payout as much as 50% of the sales revenue to stakers as winnings, but most operators conduct their activities and resulting draws in secretive manner thus resulting in high incidences of result manipulation.
Confirming this development, Chukwudi Francis in a chat with our correspondent confirmed that several patrons like him have not got value for their money over the years.
Specifically, he said, some lottery companies announce spurious claims on prospective winnings all in a bid to hoodwink unsuspecting members of the staking public.
“In a situation where the staking publics stake money with no corresponding gain from their investments is worrisome,”he said, adding that this is quite at variance with what obtains elsewhere, even within the West African sub region.
While alluding to the experience of staking public in Ghana, Francis said their Nigerian counterparts are not enjoying the best of luck.
“I recall that when I traveled to Ghana few months ago, I had a feel of how the lottery industry operates quite unlike what obtains here. Most of us here have been at the receiving end of poor regulation as far as lottery and gaming in the country is concerned.”
According to him, “Several complaints and petitions by some members of the staking public about the activities of some gaming companies against their winnings are left unattended by the regulators, as can be seen from petitions on their poorly run social media platforms.”
Interestingly, the National Union of Lottery Agents and Employees (NULAE), which has been trying to lead the vanguard against abuse have not had a smooth sail.
The Nation learnt that the union has been muscled into near silence by some major operators seeking to remain dominant players in the field, with the tactical connivance of the regulators. However, The Nation learnt that things may be looking up for the union. Rising from its last Central Working Committee meeting in January, the Secretary of NULAE, Comrade Gregory Olatunji said they have resolved to change the narrative.
Speaking further, Olatunji said: “Our initial hopes of being commended for the initiative by industry stakeholders was dashed when we were dragged to court in 2016 by Premier Lotto, in its bid to de-register the union, bar it from living to its civic responsibility and continue its grip on the affairs of the industry. Interestingly, in the course of the court proceedings, the said operator employed all tactics known to the books to deceive the court, including harassing some of its employees to write to the court and deny the union, victimising identified members of the union by removing their parameters and even registering a contraption with the corporate affairs commission called Premier Lottery Agents association. The court in its wisdom threw out their entire case and urged the union to continue its civic responsibility to its members and the government.”
Re-stating its resolve to rid its industry of anti-labour operators, Olatunji said, “With members, agents and lottery operators in both the private and public sectors of the industry, NULAE is now on a mission to take its rightful place. We will deal decisively with operators who undermine the union or engage in anti-labour practices. The union is resolute and committed to ensuring that the lottery industry has a fair playing field and we are glad that the operator who has been trying to muscle the union has lost on all grounds, from the industrial court, to the police and even in underhanded petitions to regulators and they eventually signed an agreement with the union in September 2019 as brokered by the Ministry of Labour and Employment agreeing to comply with the extant labour laws by allowing the union to address its employees, whilst requesting us to reach out to its agents; which it described as independent contractors.”
Putting regulator on their toes
There have been claims of non remittance of taxes by lottery operators in the past few years just as there are insinuations that some officials of the NLRC are in league with the operators thus resulting in non compliance.
Responding to these allegations, Ekechukwu, Assistant Director, Public Affairs, NLRC, said, “If you seek to confirm the said insinuations you talked about, no one will hesitate to tell you outrightly that the alleged insinuation is a complete falsehood.” (The Nation)
