Lottery Operators Fight Over Tax Payment, Game Rights, Others

As a result of the exclusive rights obtained by Western Lotto
Nigeria Limited to sell and promote Ghana Games in Nigeria, and its
seeking a Federal High Court order to stop the sale of the games by
others, lottery operators in the country are at daggers drawn with
some of them claiming that the agreement between Western Lotto and
LMC VAS Ghana, owners of the Ghana Games intellectual property is
an attempt by Western Lotto Limited to appropriate the regulatory
functions of the NLRC as the sole regulator of the lottery industry
in Nigeria.

It would be recalled that Lottery operators opposed to Western
Lotto also claim that the agreement debars them from offering 5/90
Ghana games comprising Monday Special Lotto, Lucky Tuesday Lotto,
Midweek Lotto, Fortune Lotto, Friday Bonanza Lotto, Saturday
National Lotto, VAG Lotto and Super Six Lotto, to Nigerian stakers
and consequently affects the revenue accruing to the Federal
Government of Nigeria But Western Lotto, in a letter to the
Director General of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission,
debunked the claims, saying its suit against the lottery operators
was borne out of altruism to halt the diversion of revenue meant
for the government by the operators.

Western Lotto, in the letter signed by Ms Chidinma Osaji, its
General Counsel, said: “The purpose of joining the NLRC, as the
regulator of the lottery industry in Nigeria, is to cause the
Commission to issue a circular to the 3rd to 25th Defendants and
every member of the class of defendants represented by them
(essentially all the NLRC licensed lottery operators in Nigeria)
requiring them to desist from passing off their 5/90 lotto products
and games as “Ghana games” or offering them as such.” It added,
“Western Lotto’s patriotic action will now lift that cloud and
create transparency in the industry.

It should not be punished for this but be encouraged by NLRC.”
Osaji, who stated that since the enactment of the National Lottery
Act in 2005 only N7 billion had been remitted by national lottery
licencees, added that: “In the past, the operations with these
names were shrouded in secrecy by the operators and this lack of
transparency meant that only what they declared was known whilst it
was common knowledge that billions were being made daily. Indeed,
the Federal Government has incurred massive losses estimated at
billions of naira from lost revenues due to it from lottery
proceeds.

This has been the subject of investigations by EFCC and
oversight committees in the National Assembly.” According to
Western Lotto, most of the lottery operators have been
short-changing the Federal Government in the payment of taxes. It
stated that “Some of the major operators are generating over N300
billion a year without paying the requisite taxes to the Federal
Government. Many of them have more than one platform which remain
hidden from the NLRC and which they have been using to perpetuate
their illegal activities in order to not pay taxes to
government