Governments taking legislative action against 'fake' lotteries

Oct 11, 2017, 3:30 pm (5 comments)

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Convenience store owners have applauded a Tasmanian Government decision to quickly draw up legislation to ban lottery outcome wagering in the island state.

It's the latest move against growing gambling disrupter Lottoland as newsagents around Australia campaign to shut down the digital competitor they say is threatening their livelihood.

Lottery outcome wagering — also know as synthetic lotteries — is an online gambling model where players bet on the outcome of an official lottery rather than buying tickets in it.

Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association Tasmanian general manager Ben Kearney said the sector had been very concerned about the proliferation of online bookmakers and their push to capture customers of existing registered lotteries.

Tasmania's 92 outlets authorised to provide lottery sales in Tasmania, most of which are newsagencies, had also raised concerns about the impact on their businesses.

"We can certainly find solutions and I applaud the Government's decisive actions," Mr. Kearney said.

Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business Roger Jaensch announced this morning the Government would draft legislation immediately to ban lottery outcome wagering as it made inroads across the nation.

Between six and eight companies are already operating in the space in Tasmania.

Lottoland is a Gibraltar-based online gambling company which replicates big lotto wins by allowing users to bet on the outcomes of international lotteries and promises to match their prizes.

While Australians who use Lottoland don't actually enter the overseas jackpots, the platform supposedly gives players access to the same massive prizes.

The controversial service is allowed to operate in Australia because it is registered in the Northern Territory — a popular base for bookmakers and gambling companies because of its attractive tax rates and licensing regime.

South Australia has already banned lottery outcome wagering, while NSW and WA are looking at the issue.

Mr. Jaesnch said the Tasmanian government would consult closely with other states as it drafted its legislation.

"It could prove difficult to control on a state level, but South Australia has done it. We will start technical and legal work straight away," he said.

"There is a difference between buying a ticket in the lottery and online gambling where consumer protections do not apply. This form of product is not welcome here."

Latrobe Newsagency manager Michelle Callandar said the sale of registered Tattslotto tickets made up a "huge" proportion of the business's turnover.

"Our customers are talking about online lottery outcome betting and are assuming it is part of Tattslotto, which it is not,' Ms. Callandar said.

"We have been here for 38 years and been a lotto agent for almost as long and we are pleased the Government has acted swiftly on a very worrying new trend."

The ALNA said real lotteries generated $30.6 million in Tasmanian state lottery taxes in 2016-2017 to pay for schools, hospitals, roads and other important infrastructure.

"This decision will ensure that this important revenue is not lost for the Tasmanian community and it also reaffirms the vital role of small business, such as the lottery and newsagents' industry, in the Tasmanian economy," ALNA CEO Adam Joy said.

"More colloquially known as lotto bets [synthetic/fake lotteries], these online-only bookmakers are different to official regulated lottery draws. They do not offer tickets in a draw, rather they draw from regulated lottery businesses and offer bets on lottery outcomes."

News AU, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

MonEl

That is the way to do it.

If a lottery vendor draws their own lottery numbers since they are an interested party people can claim that the lottery is not honest, because there is a conflict of interest there, after all those who run lotteries want to make as much profit as possible, so using lottery numbers from other sources is a good idea so people will play with them.

Would you buy lottery numbers from Al-Capone if he held his own lottery drawings?

That is why I don't much have faith on lotteries that they themselves hold their own drawings, because those lotteries are interested in making as much of a profit as they can from the sale of their lottery tickets, like the state lotteries do here on the U.S.A.

States like Texas might make from 1 to 5 billion Dollars or more each year and of course that money doesn't come down from the sky or grows on trees, it comes from all those who buy lottery tickets, a dollar is a dollar and 1 + 1 = 2 and 2 + 1 = 3, every dollar counts and the state lotteries know that.

I myself would like it better to buy lottery tickets from somebody who doesn't hold their own drawings, I think that there were numbers games run by the mafia and that they used sources of numbers not from themselves, I don't know if such things were before my time or not, but I didn't know anything about lotteries until Tx had their own state lottery, I didn't even know about any numbers games nor was interested in any such things.

Todd's avatarTodd

MonEl (Lantern), these companies are not holding their own drawings.  They are using the numbers drawn by official lotteries and paying out the money on their own.  They supposedly take out "insurance" in case someone wins the jackpot.

The crime here is when has ANYONE seen an insurance company pay out a $100 million+ jackpot?  There's no way in this universe they would.  So people buying ticket from these companies are basically throwing their money away.

Companies like Lottoland make it seem on their website that you're basically playing the real lottery, and you'll definitely get paid if you win.  But you won't, and there won't be anyone there to sue if you do.

I have been railing against these types of companies for more than 15 years.

gatorsrok

And since these fake lotteries are illegal, the "winner" of the fake lottery is not going to get much sympathy from the state/law enforcement authorities about not getting paid if they do hit a jackpot and get stiffed.

Todd's avatarTodd

Exactly.

MonEl

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Oct 11, 2017

MonEl (Lantern), these companies are not holding their own drawings.  They are using the numbers drawn by official lotteries and paying out the money on their own.  They supposedly take out "insurance" in case someone wins the jackpot.

The crime here is when has ANYONE seen an insurance company pay out a $100 million+ jackpot?  There's no way in this universe they would.  So people buying ticket from these companies are basically throwing their money away.

Companies like Lottoland make it seem on their website that you're basically playing the real lottery, and you'll definitely get paid if you win.  But you won't, and there won't be anyone there to sue if you do.

I have been railing against these types of companies for more than 15 years.

Thanks!

End of comments
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