NLA outdoors mobile lottery game

Accra, April 25, GNA - The National Lottery Authority (NLA) on Friday introduced a mobile lottery game aimed at creating more convenience for the general public in staking lottery to boost state revenue.

The game dubbed: "Mobi-Game 2 Sure" provides lottery fans the opportunity to predict any two numbers between one and 90 via SMS text messaging to win 100 Ghana cedis daily.

Paying a premium charge of one Ghana cedis, the public would be required to text their predictions between 0800 and 1800 hours through short code 1388 for MTN and 5900 for Onetouch and Kasapa subscribers. Launching the product in Accra, Mr Kojo Andah, Director-General of NLA, said the product was among interventions introduced by the NLA to tap opportunities in the mobile telecommunication industry to enable the NLA to meet its target in revenue generation.

He said with the introduction of the new Lottery Act 722, the Authority had been challenged to create more games to entertain and excite lottery fans in a way that would not only contribute to national development, but also be rewarding to the players.

"These days, it is no longer about doing one big game each year, but rather a couple of little but highly profitable games that can add up to bigger sales and using text messaging is one of those marketing tools that bring new players into the game arena."

Mr Andah assured the public of the security and confidentiality of the game to prevent fraud.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, applauded the NLA for the initiative, saying its potential of boosting revenue was commendable to enable the country to generate more income to deal with the current surge in crude oil prices and food prices. He said crude oil, which sold at less than 55 dollars per barrel, was now selling at 118 dollars and the price of wheat and rice had almost doubled.

The Minister urged the NLA to take additional steps to pay more than the projected 15 million Ghana cedis for 2008 to government and create the needed understanding that staking lottery was a win-win situation.

"If we have more money through lotteries for development, then there would be equitable distribution of development to all and no one would be aggrieved of being left behind."

Mr Baah-Wiredu further called on the NLA to engage all stakeholders in the industry and assure them that the Lottery Act made provision for all actors to remain in business appropriately.

Mr George Gyamfi-Osew, Marketing Director of NLA, estimated that seven million Ghanaians used cellular phones and 3.5 million SMS text massages were sent and received daily.

He explained that an electronic ticket number would be sent through the NLA data base system to confirm receipt of predictions and only lucky winners would be contacted for notification codes to enable them to go for their prizes at accredited points.

Mr Gyamfi-Osew cautioned winners to ignore messages that would demand advance fees or recharge cards before claiming their prizes.