NLB shortage of lottery tickets, now normalised

The National Lotteries Board (NLB) has been experiencing a shortage of lottery tickets as a result of a State Printing Corporation ( SPC) machine break down, lottery agents complained.

The NLB could not supply the demand to its agents from the outstations who called over at its head office at Kollupitiya during the past two months, they said.

Owing to this shortage, the agents have been told to visit the NLB head office in Kollupitiya every two days, to get their stock of tickets.

This situation has occurred as the SPC entrusted with the task of ticket printing is unable to print in bulk due to a machine fault, a senior official of the NLB said.

Meanwhile the daily functions at the Kollupitiya head office has been affected due to the delay in appointing

Chairman and Board of Directors at this state owned institution and the lethargic attitude of several politically powerful officials, an official of the All Island Lottery Sales Agents Association told the Business Times.

Lalith Piyum Perera has been appointed as the new Chairman of NLB recently and it will take some time to revitalise the institution, official sources said.

The printing machine is now being repaired after importing required machine parts and the supply of necessary quantity of tickets has now been normalised, a SPC official disclosed.

The NLB with sales of 3.2 million tickets daily and over 3500 tickets every minute has experienced a 7 to 8 per cent drop in sales due to the sudden shortage badly affecting, rising business volumes, the sources said.

The Finance Ministry is to take action towards revamping the two lotteries boards to make the lottery business a truly customer oriented service, a senior official who wished remain anonymous told the Business Times.

Under this initiative, the procurement relating to the print and delivery of lottery tickets will be streamlined in order to prevent delays in printing and supply of the lottery tickets as well as improving its quality and credibility with necessary security features, he disclosed.

This action follows the Auditor General’s (AG) recent report on a special audit conducted on the procurement relating to the print and delivery of lottery tickets to the NLB.

A new law will be devised to meet the present needs as the NLB was established under the Finance Act No.11 of 1963, 57 years ago and amendments were made to several sections in 1997 and 1998.