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The National Lottery and the non-profit sector
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| 1.2 Gaming Operations |
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The flagship of the National Lottery, the Lotto, was launched by President Mbeki at Yeye Butchery in Langa on March 2, 2000. At the launch, Mbeki predicted that the National Lottery would raise R13 billion for good causes within five years.
A second gaming operation, the scratch cards, was launched on October 23, 2000. Currently nine variations of this game are on the market, namely Pot of Gold (R3), Pocket Money (R2), Cash Explosion (R5), Money Spinner (R3), Going for Gold (R5), Treasure Chest (R3), Banco (R3), Money magic (R2), and Goal (R2).4
The draw for the winning numbers is held each Wednesday and Saturday on the television show Road2Riches, which has become the second most watched programme on national television. The programme is associated with the widely known catch phrase, Tata Ma Chance, Tata ’Ma Millions, which, depending on one’s perspective, is either a stroke of marketing genius or a thinly veiled ploy to stimulate false hopes amongst the poor and despondent.
By the 1st July 2002, the gross sales of the Lotto were R8,884,390,136.5 No accurate figures are available for gross sales of scratch cards, but this has been estimated as R542,225,724 for the same period. Together, this amounts to an (estimated) total sales of R9,426,615,860.
Over the duration of the seven year licence, an average of 30% of all ticket sales after VAT is designated for good causes. Although only a fraction of this has been disbursed so far, this money will become available in the immediate future, and is thus a significant source of finance for charities, arts, sporting and other non-profit organisations.
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Footnotes:
- Information from the Uthingo website.
- All figures provided by Brian Bailey, interview 12/06/2002, and correspondence, 01/07/2002.
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