Irish bookies respond to Lottery accusations
Online betting companies rejected the National Lottery’s claims about diverting money from good causes by taking bets on the outcome of Lotto draws.
Ireland.- Last week, National Lottery officials had targetted Irish bookies for allowing bets on the outcome of Lotto draws without buying tickets and therefore diverting money from good causes. However, online betting companies have fired back and rejected the accusations by questioning a report issued by the state company.
According to a statement from online operators Lottoland and MyLotto24, the Indecon Economic Consultants’ report commissioned by Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) was unable to quantify the size of the on-lottery betting market in Ireland. They also said they “reject unfounded assertions by PLI that online betting is undermining good causes funding.”
Not only did the operators criticised PLI’s report, but also cited their own, commissioned by economist Jim Power. His study showed “the leading three lottery betting operators Lottoland, MyLotto24 and Lottogo.com, had combined lottery betting sales of only €1.4 million in 2017, a mere 0.25% of PLI’s draw-based sales of €559 million for the same period,” said Lottoland and MyLotto24.
“Based on this published data, it is grossly misleading by PLI and Indecon to suggest directly or indirectly that online lottery betting is having any material impact on good causes’ funding,” they added and asserted that the PLI report “chose to overlook key concerns.”
National Lottery chief executive, Dermot Griffin, had assured operators such as Lottoland and jackpot.com have been “syphoning off” revenue from its business and from the good causes it funds.
