Jennifer Yusuf
Amid Western Lotto Nigeria Limited’s exclusive rights to sell and promote Ghana Games in Nigeria and obtaining an order from the Federal High Court to suspend the selling of the games by others, the country’s lottery operators are drawn to daggers.
Some of them contend that the deal between Western Lotto and LMC VAS Ghana, owners of Ghana Games Intellectual Property, is an effort by Western Lotto Limited to take over the NLRC’s regulatory roles as the sole regulator of the Nigerian lottery industry.
Lottery operators opposed to Western Lotto also claim that the agreement precludes them from offering 5/90 Ghana games to Nigerian stakeholders, including Monday Special Lotto, Lucky Tuesday Lotto, Midweek Lotto, Fortune Lotto, Friday Bonanza Lotto, Saturday National Lotto, VAG Lotto and Super Six Lotto, thus affecting the income of the Nigerian Government.
But Western Lotto, in a letter to the National Lottery Regulatory Commission’s Director General, debunked the claims, saying that its suit against the operators of the lottery was born out of altruism to stop the operators ‘ revenue diversion meant for the government.
