Sammi Awuku threatens to prosecute private lotto operators without license

The National Lotteries Authority (NLA) has served notice it will begin prosecuting private lotto agents who operate without license in the country.

Director-General of the NLA, Sammi Awuku, says the activities of these operators, popularly known as banker to banker, are affecting the operations of lottery in Ghana.

Speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the Nigerian Licensed Lotto Operators, Sammi Awuku, noted that his outfit is collaborating with the Ghana Police Service to flush out such operators.

“In recent times, we have been swarmed by issues of fraud by our own system. I mean, people sitting on TV and radio saying they can give out the numbers of the day. That is not true. We are NLA do not conjure figures. The numbers are drawn live, and it’s simply a game of chance. So, anyone who wins it, it is on the fact that person took that big chance to win.”

“So this is something we are going to prosecute strongly. So in the coming days, we are going to go hard on people who are operating without a license in Ghana and operating a private lottery in Ghana without a license from the NLA. We are serving notice effective today [Thursday, September 2, 2021], and there will be proper publication effective Monday.”

The NLA has in the past expressed worry about how fraudsters particularly on social media have defrauded a lot of unsuspecting people through several Facebook accounts/pages, WhatsApp platforms, and other social media handles they have created using the name and logo of NLA in different formats.

It thus asked the public to be careful in dealings with lotto operators.

The Authority has also been disassociating itself from any losses incurred by unsuspecting people who are duped by these fraudsters.

NLA thus appealed to the police and other security agencies to “help in curtailing the activities and operations of the lotto fraudsters and social media miscreants”.