As NLRC Restates Commitment to Enforcing Lottery Regulations

Bennett  Oghifo

The National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) has told all stakeholders in the country’s lottery industry that it is committed to enforcing all regulations in the lottery industry to ensure sanity and economic benefit for the federal government.

Owing to this, the Commission called all stakeholders to a crucial meeting in Lagos during the week to  brainstorm on the way forward.

The NLRC was established through the National Lottery Act of 2005. The Commission was primarily born out of the need to regulate the operations of lottery business, promote transparency and accountability in lottery; and protect the interests of players, stakeholders and the general public.

The Commission is committed to sustainable and transparent lotteries driven by professionalism and leading technologies for social and economic development, meeting the needs of stakeholders.

The Director General of NLRC, Lanre Gbajabiamila, who presided over the meeting, read the riot act, stating that, “At the end of the day, what we want to take out of here is for us to do better for the industry, is to encourage the operators, because they have their challenges, and also to let the regulators know that without the operators, or the players, there cannot be a regulator. So that’s the only sense of being here to make sure that collectively, we are able to move this industry forward. It is a promising industry, the potential is there, the opportunities are there, if properly regulated.”

The DG said the lottery industry ceases to be an all-comers affair. “It’s not an all-comers affair. We’ve seen over the years a lot of unserious operators. We filter the applicants now, because we’ve seen that some of them just come to scrub the industry. They’re not putting their quota out there. And we have wrong numbers out there. They say that, Oh, it’s a billion-naira industry. How do we know it’s a billion-naira industry? Do we have data to showcase that? There’s no data to show. So anybody can say it’s worth billions or trillions of naira, but until we have proper data to access and know what comes in or what’s going on in terms of numbers, then we can safely say what the industry is worth. But until then, we cannot, and the only way we can do that, to what I’ve been campaigning for, is to have our central monitoring system in place.

“The central monitoring system helps us to have all the operators connect to the platform, to the system, and we’re able to see real-time online transactions. We’re able to regulate responsibility. We’re even able to see the revenues from remote gaming operators that are outside the shores of Nigeria. So until we have that system in place, we can’t know the actual worth of this industry but the potentials are there.”

He said those engaged in shady deals can only do so for a while, stating that “We have mechanisms in place. We work with other agencies of government, like the NFIU like NCC for the online operators. So we have so many, you know, we have to keep working with that. We have the Office of the National Security Adviser, for the online remote gaming operators as well, the EFCC. So there’s no hiding place for them. Then we also have a versatile monitoring and enforcement department at the lottery Commission. They do a good job.”

He listed some infractions that are very concerning to the Commission, saying, “Some operators have not been complying with percentage remittances to the government. The list of the erring operators will be drawn out and penalties will apply according to the breaches and penalties clause in the gaming Terms & Conditions.

Monthly Reporting Template

The Monthly Reporting Template provided to each operator (also downloadable from our website) is to be used by every operator for the submission of their reports. All entries are compulsory. Data is required to be generated from the reports for use by the Federal Government. The current operational address of operator must be stated in every monthly report. The contact details of the operator must also be included. Employee strength (direct & indirect) is also a required detail in the monthly report.

Terms & Conditions

Every operator is mandated to regularly read and comprehend their Terms and Conditions as ignorance of the law is never an excuse. However, from the feedback from this stakeholders meeting there may still be a need for further review. All payment receipts of monthly remittances must be sent to Commission’s email within 24 hours of payment. The Commission’s email address for REMITA payments is remittances@nlrc-gov.ng This email should also be entered into the REMITA form along with the operator’s email.

He noted that operators should always use the name of their company to make payments as against personal names. Submission of receipt of payments (especially remittances) via the above email address should be done within 24hrs of payment.  Proper narration for payments should be used for payments to the NLRC and NLTF. Select the correct entry from the drop down list on the REMITA platform for your remittances and fees.

“All payments should be made separately and not lumped together. That is, Application Fee should be paid separately, as well as Permit Fee paid separately. Submission of REMITA receipts must be copies of the receipts issued by REMITA, not the ones generated by yourselves or your bank. Be guided as sending the wrong receipts to the Commission amounts to not submitting anything, and penalties will apply.

“Compliance with the Cybersecurity directive is mandatory for all existing and prospective operators in the gaming industry. Henceforth, the Commission will not entertain any requests from any operator without full compliance with the cybersecurity framework directive.

“Some operators submit payment receipts to the Commission without any corresponding Cover Note. Any document, especially payment receipts, been sent to the Commission must have a cover note giving details of what you are submitting. Henceforth, any receipt of payment sent to the Commission without a proper cover note will be rejected,” the guidelines stated.

Responsible Gaming

It also directed operators to form a committee to look into setting up of a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation (NGO) to handle the provision of counselling services for identified game addiction victims and proffer solutions to them. This activity will be funded by the operators. Quarterly reports shall be submitted to the Commission. The Commission will have supervision on the activities of the NGO.

 Payment of Service Provider

It was also been brought to the attention of the Commission that there is a feature on the platform of Payment Service Providers (PSPs) that allows punters who want to fund their wallets from their bank account to use a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to transfer the money to their wallets through the PSP. This SPV lasts for only one hour. The SPV disappears after one hour. We think this feature is dangerous and may be disastrous to the integrity of operator platforms. Operators should be wary of this feature. Copies of agreements between operators and PSPs should be forwarded to the Commission for review.