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April 5 - Mandisi Mpahlwa - Trade and Industry Minister has stated that there will not be an authorised licensed operator to conduct SA's national lottery for a one month period.
The reason for this is a High Court ruling in March that the National Lottery Board's process to award the new lotto license to the Gidani Consortium was procedurally incorrect.
Pretoria High Court judge - Willie Seriti ruled that the board did not investigate the bidder's shareholdings.
The bidder for the new Lotto license - Gidani supposedly has shareholders who are political office bearers. According to the Lotteries Act, such individuals are prohibited from having a stake in the country's lottery.
Just hours before the expiry of the license held by Uthingo, Mpahlwa stated he had commissioned additional investigations by the board, in line with the court's requirements.
Due to the amount of work involved, it was difficult for the board to complete the process in time to meet the 31 March deadline.
Mpahlwa stated there was no legal basis to extend the license held by Uthingo and that efforts are being made to minimize the period where there is no lottery running.
In the meantime there are talks with all Lotto bidders to investigate options in the Lotteries Act to see if it could run without a licensed operator, failing which it will take a month for the new license to take effect.
For all those who have unclaimed tickets for the period are urged to keep them as payouts should not be a problem because any contracts between Uthingo and the stores would have been valid until 31 March.
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