THE JAMAICA Lottery Company (JLC) has been given another 10-year operating licence for its popular Lotto game.
The company says it will be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) within the next 12 months.
In a press release from the company, Managing Director Eugene Ffolkes said the Betting, Gaming & Lotteries Commission (BGLC) had renewed its current operating licence, which was due to end at the start of the new year. The new licence will run from January 11, 2001 to 2011.
The JLC currently operates three gaming products, the twice a week Lotto and the smaller Pick 3 and Scratchers subsidiary games. The company has also expanded into offering remittance and cambio services, with more than 100 MoneyGram locations and seven Cambio Express locations.
JLC helped to set up the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) in 1995 with a $34 million contribution. Since then it has handed over almost $1 billion in Lotto funds. The previous JLC licence stipulates that 10 per cent of its profits should be paid over to the government for sport development.
Some 49 per cent of Lotto revenues is allocated to paying out winners.
The JLC also pays more than one per cent of its revenue to the BGLC, 8 to 9 per cent to its agents islandwide, and 12 per cent to Canadian Bank Notes International which provides the technology used by the company.
On May 1 the tax structure of the Lottery Company was altered.
The previous 25 per cent levy on winnings, with a Lotto tax paid out of gross revenues by the JLC, was replaced. The new tax is on the weekly gross revenue of the Lottery Company, including 23 per cent of weekly gross revenue in the case of the Lotto, and 17 per cent of gross weekly revenue from instant lottery or numbers game, such as Catch 3 or Scratch & Win.
The company said in its release that it directly or indirectly employs 1,000 people and plans to invest $300 million over the next year in building a major information technology company.
