Law to check gambling

The new law seeks to streamline the lottery and gaming activities.

Kampala

Arrangements to enact a new lottery law have been finalised in a move that will see national lottery activities carried out using modern technologies.

The new law, according to the National Lotteries Board chariman, Mr Manzi Tumubweine, seeks to streamline the lottery and gaming activities under one law and would capture all technological changes and address cybercrime. “Under this law, we shall strengthen the requirements for starting a betting agency but both lottery and gaming will have separate clauses,” he said yesterday.

Mr Tumubweine further said the new law under review before the Attorney General, will replace the 1967 National Lotteries Act. “We started this process in 2009 and we hope the new law will come into force by end of this year,” Mr Tumubweine said. He made the remarks at the launch of the National Lottery in Kampala, where the board announced that it had mandated a lottery operator to run the lottery in accordance with the law.

Operating the lottery
The National lottery operator, Mena Sports Consulting, is slated to run the lottery under regulation by the board with live draws twice every week where winning numbers will be displayed in the media while winners receive notifications on their mobile handsets.

“We have seen the difference national lotteries have made in peoples’ lives in other countries of the world. Therefore, we have granted a highly regarded and experienced organisation the licence to provide the chance to Ugandans from all walks of life to win millions and change their lives in the process,” said Mr Tumubweine.

State Minister for Investment, Mr Gabriel Gadison Ajedra, commended the initiative saying it was in line with the government pronouncement to work towards restructuring the lotteries and gaming industry as one of the avenues of generating funds to finance her programmes.

“This lottery will be operated with transparency and integrity. I am optimistic that this game will be fair and operators must honour their pledges to the public and also ensure timely pay,” said Mr Ajedra.
According to Mr Tumubweine, the lottery will contribute 15 per cent of their sales as government revenue while an unspecified amount will be allocated towards development work.

Mr John Ejalu, the director of corporate affairs at Sports Betting Africa, said the move was welcome but asked the relevant authorities to consult them. “A new law is fine especially on the objective of transparency but all we need to know are the details and mechanisms of the law,” he said.

ekasozi@ug.nationmedia.com