Lotto games pull $9B

Last year people gambled $900 million on lottery games, and this year the figure is expected to grow to one billion dollars ($1,000 million), said National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) chairman, Louis Lee Sing. He was addressing the NLCB’s tenth Anniversary Celebrations of On-line Gaming on Thursday at the Hilton Trinidad. Since 1994, NLCB has offered Play Whe and Lotto, plus more recent games, at its terminals across the country. Lee Sing said in the past decade the NLCB had drawn such revenues that it had in turn been able to contribute over $9 billion to the economy of the country. This sum included prize money paid out of some $5.5 billion.

These monies would have gone to illegal Whe Whe, said Lee Sing, if the then Government had not taken a bold decision to set up Play Whe and Lotto. He opined that Whe Whe turfs remain illegal competition to the NLCB, and needed to be eliminated. Lee Sing also criticised local casinos, which he numbered at 40-plus. The NLCB had to compete with casino operators, he said, who had very deep pockets. “How these casinos translate into benefits to the people of Trinidad and Tobago is anyone’s guess,” he hit. “I could not ascertain their contributions to Trinidad and Tobago.” In contrast, he said the past year had seen NLCB directly contribute $765 million to the economy of the country.

This consisted of $112 million to the Consolidated Fund, $2 million to sports and culture, $649 million to prize winners, $1 million to community projects, and $12 million to the advertising and media industries. Moreso, he boasted, NLCB had given employment to 2,700 persons. These consisted of 2,000 classic vendors, 615 on-line vendors, 50 staff of G-TECH (NLCB’s technical partner), and 100 staff at NLCB headquarters. Looking to the future, Lee Sing said NLCB wanted to expand its gaming terminals into bill-payment centres and outlets selling tickets for entertainment shows. He concluded: “As we celebrate ten years, there is much to feel good about.”