Australia’s Prime Minister has approached Tabcorp to seek advice on a lottery to encourage people to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- As the Australian government is looking for options to encourage people to get vaccinated, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sounded out Tabcorp <\/strong>about running a special lottery for those who have been vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A plan from the opposition party to offer AU$300 (US$221) to every fully vaccinated citizen was rejected last December. Morrison initially argued that it wasn’t necessary to offer an extra motivation to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tabcorp said in a statement: \u201cIntroducing a dedicated lottery for those vaccinated would require, among other things, navigating the requirements of our state lottery licences and responsible gambling practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It would also require the approval of state government regulators<\/strong>, gaining clarification from the Therapeutic Goods Administration around incentivising vaccinations, and maintaining customer privacy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea has been supported by the Grattan Institute, an independent think tank, that suggested the government put up AU$80m as an incentive<\/strong>, with AU$10m in weekly prizes from November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only 22.5 per cent of people aged 16 and over have been fully vaccinated <\/strong>while 13.7m doses were administered since February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the US, lotteries have offered prizes of up to US$1m<\/strong> for those who have been vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tabcorp <\/strong>has said that it won\u2019t oppose the implementation of a ban on credit cards<\/strong> for online gambling in Australia as long as customers could still buy lottery tickets at shops and newsagents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company said the measure would need at least a year to be implemented <\/strong>to allow the industry time to adapt to the changes. It warned that it could lead to unintended consequences as Tabocorp has lost ground to online competitors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The debate around the use of credit cards<\/a> for online gambling began back in 2019 when an association launched a public consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTabcorp supports a ban on credit card use for gambling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n