The National Lottery Authority (NLA) informs Corporate Ghana, the general public, cherished patrons and all stakeholders that the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice in an advice dated 22nd August 2022 has affirmed the following Judgements clarifying the statutory mandates of the NLA and the Gaming Commission:
• The Republic vs. Gaming Commission (Suit No. MISC/19/2012)
• Fidelity Bank Ltd, Global Media Alliance vs. National Lottery Authority (Suit NO. OCC/38/2011)
• Gaming Commission vs. National Lottery Authority & 8 ORS (Suit No. OCC/89/14).
The Judgments in the above cases have clearly determined that:
(i) NLA is the only Authority mandated to operate lottery in Ghana (Section 2(2) of ACT 722).
(ii) The mandate of the Gaming Commission as provided by the establishing Act, Act 721, relates
to games of chance, which are not lotteries in nature.
(iii) It is in respect of these determinations by the Court in the case of The Republic vs. Gaming Commission (Suit No. MISC/19/2012) that the learned Judge made the following order(s) restraining the Respondents (Gaming Commission) “… and any official of the Gaming Commission from further issuing purported permits or licenses that allow private enterprises to set up schemes for alleged participation in draws for prizes through obtaining a prior qualification”.
The Gaming Commission was also restrained “from imposing and collecting purported levies and charges from the promotional budget or prize funds of these schemes and from sponsoring, conducting or supervising any draws for these purposes…”
From the decisions of the Court, a Lottery “is a scheme for distributing prizes from the drawing lots based on numbers; or numbered qualification obtained after patronizing the interested parties’ business; and in the case of Max Mart and Samsung, sending texts to particular numbers”.
In a nutshell, any scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance is a Lottery.
In accordance with the advice of the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, NLA has the sole statutory mandate (to the exclusion of all others) to regulate all consumer promotional schemes with elements of chance (raffles, draws, points-based selection criteria, etc.).