Illegal Lotto Operators Fined

Eight illegal lotto operators within the Accra Metropolis have been fined ?1.6 million each or in default 4 years imprisonment in hard labour for duplicating value added tax (VAT) booklets and illegally operating on the Department of National Lotteries (D.N.L) machine.

The eight are King Mensah, Kwadwo Boateng, Kwame Bannie, Kofi Baah, Francis Asiedu, Godfred Marfo, Joseph Kwesi Aminamah and Qugo George.

They were arrested by a combined team of police personnel from the Striking Force Unit and Accra Central and the security of DNL which mounted an operation to clamp down illegal lotto operators popularly known as 'banker to banker' in different parts of Accra.

The Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police Eric Amoako told the circuit tribunal that the pirating of DNL draws is becoming persistent among the banker to banker operators in and around Accra. He said the culprits were found using booklets issued by the VAT Secretariat to private lotto operators bearing the inscriptions of Obiri Special Raffle, Super 06, etc and they sold tickets to the public for the DNL draw of 18th January, 2003, which was illegal.