Karen Harverson
South Africa’s first national lottery — expected to generate billions-of-rands in turnover a year — should begin operating by
Minister for General Services Chris Fismer will appoint consultants before the end of February to advise on the format of the lottery as well as to make changes to the National Lottery Act to be submitted to Parliament in April.
“Tenders submissions for consultants close next week Friday and we’ve had a huge response from both international and local companies,” says Fismer.
Once the Act has been approved, a 19-member National Lottery Board will be appointed to implement the legislation and appoint a private operator — wholly independent of the consultants — to run the lottery for the state. This is expected to take place in January 1997.
If South Africa’s lottery is based on the successful United Kingdom model, the position as operator will be fiercely contested as the operator stands to gain huge potential
“We envisage that 50% of the annual turnover will be prize money while 30% will go towards needy causes, and 20% to the operator for expenses, profits and marketing,” says Fismer. The operator will be subject to corporate tax.
Presently, the draft legislation provides that the money for good causes shall be divided between the Reconstruction and Development Programme, sports development, welfare organisations, and development of arts, culture and heritage.
The operator is expected to have international experience particularly for an on-line computer lottery.
Fismer believes as many as 10 000 terminals may be required which could be situated in businesses such as shebeens, newstands, and
Some of the controversial issues surrounding the UK lottery which Fismer says will be taken into account include the huge amount of prize money that can be won by one person each week. “As much as 42-million has been won by one person and there is a lot of debate whether South Africa should cap the prize won by any one person.”
Also of concern is the huge profits made by the operator. “No one envisaged the turnover would be that great in the UK, and correspondingly, the operator is making far more than anticipated. We will look at ways to structure this in our lottery system.”