Court to decide fate of lotto operators

July 3, 2008 (Page 3 Lead)

THE Supreme Court will, on July 23, 2008, decide the fate of the Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA) which is challenging the constitutionality of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) (Act 722).
The GLOA instituted the legal action against the NLA on the constitutionality or otherwise of the National Lotto Act which gave the NLA the exclusive right to operate lotto.
According to the GLOA, the NLA had taken over the assets of the Department of National Lotteries (DNL), instead of overseeing the operations of the NLA and DNL, thereby resulting in the cessation of the existence of the DNL.
At the court’s hearing in Accra yesterday, the presiding judge, Mr Justice S.A. Brobbey fixed the date after parties had filed the necessary documents to support their case.
According to the court, although parties in the matter defaulted in filing references, the court had decided to pardon them and give judgement in view of the immense public interest in the case.
It, therefore, directed counsel for both parties to make photocopies of references made and file them accordingly to assist the court in delivering its judgement.
Other panel members are Dr Justice Date Bah, Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Mr Justice Anin Yeboah and Mr Justice P. Baffoe-Bonnie.
According to the GLOA, the National Lotto Act, which outlawed the operations of lotto business by private lotto operators, infringed the constitutionally guaranteed right of the private lotto operators to free economic activity.
The plaintiffs — Obiri Asare and Sons Limited, Rambel Enterprise Limited, Dan Multi-Purpose Trading Enterprise Limited, Agrop Association Limited, Star Lotto Limited and From-Home Enterprises — argued that the creation of the NLA to take over and monopolise the operation of the lotto business in Ghana infringed the constitutional injunction to the government to ensure a pronounced role for the private sector in the economy.
They are, therefore, praying the Supreme Court to declare that “the National Lotto Act (Act 722), in so far as it prescribes the operation of lotto by persons other than the State, is inconsistent with and in contravention of the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, especially the fundamental human rights provisions and the directive principles of State policy, and is consequently null and void”.
The GLOA is also praying the court to set aside or strike down as null and void the offending sections of the said National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722).
According to the GLOA, the Constitution had stated categorically that “every person, particularly the private person, has the right to economic activity and that right cannot be lawfully taken away, save in the manner provided by the said Constitution”.
The plaintiffs said some time in July 2007, the NLA caused to be issued media publications which declared the NLA as the only body authorised to do lotto business in Ghana.
The GLOA argued that all sectors of the economy, ranging from the media, telecommunications, health, banking, among others, had been liberalised, thereby promoting free economic activities, to the benefit of all Ghanaians, adding that that must be seen to be done in the lotto business.
However, the NLA insisted that the law was constitutional and, therefore, did not infringe on the rights of the GLOA.
The NLA further argued that the Lotto Act did not monopolise its (NLA’s) operations and that district weekly lotto operators, popularly known as “banker-to-banker” operators, pirated on numbers drawn by the DNL for their private gain and thereby operated without regard to existing laws and regulations.
The Accra High Court, on March 14, 2008, granted an interlocutory injunction filed by the GLOA to restrain the NLA from interfering with the property rights of lotto operating businesses of those concerned.
According to the court, the outcome of the case at the Supreme Court would guide it in its decision in the case because the issue of constitutionality had been raised by the NLA.