Members of the Concerned Lotto Agents Association of Ghana (CLAAG) have expressed dissatisfaction with the abrupt tightening of the law against unlicensed lotto operators in the country by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) upon the assumption of office of President Akufo-Addo.
Director-General of NLA, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, recently asked all unlicensed lottery operators to, as a matter of urgency, register with the NLA in order to operate in accordance with the National Lottery Act of 2006, Act 722, which mandates the authority to regulate, supervise and conduct national lotteries in the country.
Per the new directives, all lotto agents, writers and operators, have up to the end of this year to register with the NLA or they would be made to face the full rigorous of the law, the CLAAG members claimed.
Executive Secretary of CLAAG, Kwaku Duah-Tawiah, in a statement to the media, said they heard the Director-General on radio disclosing that the NLA would register between 30 and 50 lotto operators in each region and charge each person GHȼ1 million to raise GHȼ150 million for the state.
He described this as unacceptable and passionately appealed to the government to quickly amend the law governing the lotto operation since the government stands to gain more than GHȼ300 million annually if it allows the current status quo to remain.
Mr. Duah-Tawiah argued that the large number of lotto agents, writers and operators could contribute substantially to the growing of Ghana’s economy if proper modalities were put in place for them to operate.
The CLAAG members claimed Mr. Osei-Ameyaw and some management members of NLA intend to arraign and jail all private lotto operators by setting a high threshold that is difficult to meet.
“We appeal to President Akufo-Addo and his government to take a second look at the National Lottery Law or we would interpret the directive by the NLA boss as bad faith on the part of government after honouring our side of bargain in the electioneering campaign promise.
“Arresting people, who are prepared to work in their own country in order to contribute meaningfully to the economy, is not a good thing to talk about, we do not know whether we will be registered as “banker to banker” operators of NLA or not.
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