Senator slams NLCB

"How many paupers does the National Lottery create?" Ali asked in the Senate during the second reading of the Amendment to the National Lotteries Act Chapt 21:04.

He said there appeared to be much ambivalence from the Government regarding gambling.

Ali referred to Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s 2006 Budget statement in which he said gambling was against the law, but Ali said "we are happy to have institutionalised gambling."

He said the poor sacrificed "their little bit of resources to play these games with the temptation that they will win."

Ali wanted to know how much was being spent by those who can "ill afford to." He said it was the poor foregoing money for milk, rent and school books. He said people were also defaulting on payments which they should make.

"When people default, for example, on their auto insurance, then they are putting all of us at risk."

Ali said he has spoken to a senior insurance broker who said since the online lottery started in 1994, the number of people defaulting on their auto insurance was "unimaginable."

Ali wanted to know if a study had been done on addiction to lottery games. "If we don’t have a study on that, we should launch a study."

Ali called for a review of the National Lotteries Board Act to "to give some clear direction of the aims and objectives of the organisation instead of this piecemeal fashion."

He said the Act has been unchanged since 1968. Ali questioned the involvement of the NLCB in bill payments through its Via programme, saying he did not see this as part of the board’s terms of reference.

He described as the NLCB’s authority to approve raffles as a "conflict of interest," since it was also in the "business of games of chance."

Ali said in 1988 the Act was amended to introduce Instant Lottery — Scratch — and this made provision for the surplus to go into a sports and culture fund. He said, "As far as I know all the surplus goes into the consolidated fund."

Ali said a formal legal structure should be established for a fund for distinct areas of charity. He said a "model" already existed with the Sport and Culture Fund.

Commenting on the NLCB’s revenue, Ali said the revised draft estimates (2004) showed that the gross revenue for the NLCB was $1 billion and online games accounted for 90 percent of total sales. Prize money was the "biggest chunk" of gross sales revenue.