As part of efforts to clamp down on illegal lotto operators across the country, the taskforce of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) has apprehended seven operators in the Ashanti Region.
The suspects who were handed over to the police were Collins Yeboah, Owusu Gideon, Paul Adade who was operating for Naa Sei Ventures, Gyamrah Akenten, Richard Bright Adom, Antwi Bruce (operating for BA Lottos) and Benjamin Owusu (operating for Sikatuo).
This followed the completion of the NLA’s licence regime in line with measures to streamline the activities of lotto operators.
The Ashanti Region is one of the regions known for the activities of illegal lotto business.
However, many actors in the industry thought because of the heavy politic
al background of the new Director General Mr. Samuel Awuku and because the region is seen as the ‘world bank’ of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), the region will be a no go area for the fight against illegal operators.
The Lotto Taskforce’s strike on Saturday February 12, 2022 was therefore a surprise to many.
The team arrested the seven operators in an operation, which the team described as very successful.
Speaking to journalists on the operation at the Ashanti Region Police Headquarters, Mr. Goodfellow Dei Ofei, Public Relations Manager for the NLA said “as we indicated we will have these unannounced swoops to clear the system of these illegal operators. People thought that we will not walk the talk but as you have clearly seen today we are determined to get results for the Authority and Ghana”.
He added that, “as I always say we have given a human face to this exercise and these operators have been given ample time to have their activities properly regularised but some of these people thought we were joking about our resolve to clear the system of illegal lottery activities.
“Today’s operation was very successful we apprehended 7 operators at their closing points and some cash which are proceeds from their activities. “The police have been of tremendous support to us. We expect to prosecute these suspects as soon as possible. We were surprised to see that some of these operators have procured fake License which they boldly display as having duly registered to engage in lottery. The team also realized that these operators especially operators of BA Lotto have business models that is alien to the NLA. They were paying high commissions and were always close to about 50% bonus to players. We have reason to believe that these operators are using lottery as a disguise to launder money”.
It will be recalled that last year, the management of the National Lottery Authority headed by its new Director General Mr. Samuel Awuku engaged the Association of Private Lotto Operators on the modalities to renewing their operational license for the year 2021/2022 which expired in June last year.
After the deliberations, both parties agreed on some modalities which culminated into the licensing procedure.
After the completion of the license regime, the NLA with the support of the security services set out to clamp down on the activities of persons operating Lotto illegally.
A series of such operations have occurred in some parts of the Greater Accra, Eastern and Central regions since the 1st of November last year.
Last Saturday’s operation took place in Greater Kumasi ie Asokwa, Oforikrom, Ahodwo and its environs.
