The Director-General, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Mr. Adolphus Ekpe, says corrective regulation is being applied on operators of illegal lottery business to grow the industry.

Ekpe told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday that most operators of illegal lottery business in the country were ignorant of the type of business they were into.

He said that following some arrest the commission had made in the past, most operators of illegal lottery businesses were detained, interrogated and were later released on condition that they regularised their operations.

“For example, a banker who encourages customers decides to deposit some amount of money, keep it for some period and stand a chance of winning, has introduced lottery to his marketing strategy.

“If a producer asks you to buy some quantity of his goods and stand a chance of winning, the person has introduced lottery in the consumer sales promotion.”

He further said that the commission was poised to sanitise the industry in such a way that it would rid it of illegal operators as well as compel legal operators to play by the rules.

“We have arrested some of them, detained and even charged some of them to court.

“At the end of the day because when you say that somebody is fake, sometimes the person may not even know that he is operating a lottery business.

“So, if the person is ignorant, we don’t put the enforcement part of it but we allow him to regularise.

“In other words, we don’t believe more in conviction. If the person recognises that what he is doing is bad, we impose a corrective regulation.

“So far, we have not convicted any person because at the end of the day, they come to settle and rectify,” he said.

The director-general said that the commission would soon introduce new initiatives that would permit lottery operators and promoters to grow the market.

Ekpe said that in order to bring lottery closer to the people, the commission had introduced an automated operation for lottery business in the country.

According to him, repositioning the lottery industry for maximum contribution to national development is the major priority of the commission.

“I believe that the way the government actually gets money is through automation and we have already kick-started the programme.

“This is because we need to actually monitor and regulate the operators in an automated form by regulating standards and by also protecting the players and making sure that the money due to government is remitted to the trust fund,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commission was established through the National Lottery Act of 2005 to regulate the operations of lottery business, promote transparency and accountability in lottery. (NAN)

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