A South Africa’s high court in Mpumalanga has issued a ruling against a prominent online group that has been unlawfully profiting from the National Lottery.
For years, LottoStar has been offering online fixed odds betting games through its internet platform that is based on National Lottery outcome. Mpumalanga ruled that LottoStar’s online operations violated the South African Lotteries Act.
In simple terms, LottoStar is not a lottery operator but an online tickets seller, and the game’s results are solely dependent on South Africa government-sponsored lottery draws.
The Mpumalanga court ruled that no online gaming site can offer interactive betting that has results solely based on the outcome of the government-run lottery.
South Africa National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has contested about LottoStar’s online sale since 2015. NLC argued that it was competing for the same customer as LottoStar, but is taxed differently.
LottoStar is taxed at only 1.7 percent of its gross ticket sales, while NLC pays 27 percent of all tickets sales to the South Africa government National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
LottoStar is thus able to offer better odds than NCL. Furthermore, its online fixed odds betting games license in Mpumalanga give them more advantage.
The court declared LottoStar to offer fixed odds betting licenses illegal for it permits them to accept bets on the outcome of the National Lottery.
The high court has ordered LottoStar to cease accepting fixed odds on the National Lottery games. The gaming company has also been ordered to cover the long legal challenge. LottoStar plans to file a petition with South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal.
