Lottery operator Gidani again loses bid to run lotto

FORMER lottery operator Gidani has once more lost its legal bid to run the multi-million rand national lotto project.

In May, the court dismissed an application by Gidani to set aside the decision by the Minister of Trade and Industry to award the licence to Ithuba.

Not accepting defeat, Gidani wanted to take the matter on appeal, but Judge Billy Mothle was adamant that the losing operator had no prospects of success on appeal.

After the enactment of the Lotteries Act in 2000, the first national lottery was awarded to Uthingo for up to eight years. The second licence was then awarded to Gidani, but the minister last year opened the third lottery contract to bidders. Gidani and Ithuba applied, but Ithuba was chosen.

Gidani immediately turned to the courts to have this decision overturned. Judge Neil Tuchten declared the agreement invalid, but referred the matter back to the minister.

The minister reconsidered his decision and addressed certain of the concerns the judge had at the time. He then re-awarded the licence to Ithuba. Gidani again turned to court and also lost that review bid, against which it now lost its leave to appeal application.

Judge Mothle said that Gidani’s grounds of appeal were basically a repeat of its previous objections.

One of the grounds was that the court did not find that the minister failed to consider Ithuba’s inability to maximise its financial contributions to the trust fund for distribution to deserving causes.

But Judge Mothle said the criteria for an appropriate lottery operator did not only rest on the bidder who proposed higher percentages of income and an ability to contribute more to the fund.