The National Lottery Authority (NLA) has relaunched the Veterans Administration Ghana (VAG) lotto game to its Lotto Marketing Companies (LMCs) as part of a collaboration agreement with the VAG.
Director-General of NLA, Samuel Awuku – who addressed dignitaries at an unveilling ceremony of new draw machines and relaunch of the VAG lottery in Accra, said the reintroduction will offer effectiveness, improve chances of winning and maintain the authority’s profitability.
“The VAG lotto draw, which hitherto was held at 8:30am, will now be held at 10am from Monday to Saturday. This is to give players more time before the draw,” Mr. Awuku said.
It will be recalled that the NLA in June 2018 signed a collaboration agreement with VAG to exclusively hold lotteries, raffles or other similar games and operations.
As part of the collaboration with NLA, VAG terminated all outstanding contracts executed with third parties in connection with lotto.
The agreement, Mr. Awuku noted, is in furtherance of the Authority’s objects under section 22 of Act 844.
He said the NLA will endeavour to promptly honour its contractual obligations under the agreement with the VAG.
Launch of new draw machines and studio
After 27 years of operating with the old draw machines, which the NLA described as ‘godfather machines’, Mr. Awuku explained that their ability to effectively function has been hampered.
“Additionally, the machines have become obsolete and their manufacturers are no longer making the specific models; thus, obtaining spare-parts to fix them has become difficult,” he said.
In this vein, the Authority has unveilled four new modern draw machines for Monday Special, Midweek, Friday Bonanza and National Weekly Lotto games.
However, according to the NLA, the old machines will for the meantime still be used to draw Lucky Tuesday, Fortune Thursday and Sunday Aseda games until they are all completely phased out.
The Authority has also in accordance with best practices remodelled its draw studios to complement the introduction of new machines.
“All these strides and feats have become necessary to elevate our status to be at par with global best practice. NLA recently attained its level 2 certification in responsible gaming from the World Lottery Association (WLA), and is working on achieving level 3 by end of the year. All these mean that the NLA must operate with machines and equipment of the highest standard,” Mr. Awuku noted.
Minister of Defence, Dominic Ntiwul, commended the NLA for sustaining VAG lotto over the years and rebranding it for LMCs.
“The partnership between the NLA and VAG has been of immense benefit to Veterans, with the Authority’s monthly cash payments, medical aid among others,” Mr. Ntiwul said.
