National Lottery licence in the offing
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday March 8, 2017 15:44
A Lottery is a gambling means of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random.
As part of this process, which is expected to take nine months, the Authority has already put the draft lottery document called Request For Approval (RFA) on its website for the public to air their opinions around it.
The RFA is the guide document, which shall be used to provide information on the process and information required from applicants to be assessed for the award to the successful operator.
According to the Authority’s chief executive officer (CEO), Thulisizwe Johnson, it enables the whole process to be seamless noting that the comments can be emailed or hand delivered before March 17 this year.
“After the said period we would access them and agree with the board which ones to consider which we will then add in the RFA. But people should not expect us to respond to their emails and letters but rather will see in the RFA whether their opinions were considered,” he said.
Following that, Johnson said the Authority would then publish the RFA at the end of March, which will run for a period of three months while they would also allow enquiries from bidders.
“It is then through this time we will be allowing the bidders to show their interest through letters of intent. We would also hold bidders conference in April where will accord them an opportunity to ask questions and get clarification where it needs to be,” he said.
Johnson said they have set June 30 as the final date to receive applications for the National Lottery Licence, which shall be accompanied by non- refundable P1 million application fee that should be confirmed, by the bank by end of business on the day.
He said they would then begin assessing the applications which would include due diligence adding that they intend to complete the whole process by August 25 including evaluation, site visits and everything that needed to be done.
According to Johnson, they would then announce the preferred applicant in November with the expectation to have a live lottery in Botswana by next year. The successful applicant would then be expected to pay an annual licence fee of P1 million.
“We are mostly interested in bidders showing us how they are going to contribute towards the empowerment of the locals, economic diversification, create employment while also ensuring that they exclude the under 21 aged people and the vulnerable. Each bidder should also have citizen consortium,” he said.
The GA, which became fully operational last year, will also issue casino licences for Gaborone, Palapye, Maun and Kasane through land-based casinos this year.
Betting and lotteries will also be offered countrywide through land-based operations as well as Internet and cellular networks.
The Authority has also commissioned a baseline research into gambling in Botswana and to this end, a Reference Committee has been set up to drive this process to ensure appropriate interventions with respect to responsible gambling.