Lotteries Board runs out of luck

By Nirmala Kannangara

The Development Lotteries Board(DLB) has incurred huge losses amounting to several millions of rupees from the recently suspended Deyata Kirula lottery, All Ceylon Lottery Dealers' Association (ACLDA) said.

The Deyata Kirula lottery was first introduced solely for the Deyata Kirula exhibition in February 2008 but later on December 28, 2008 the lottery was once again released to the market for a weekly draw, which could not last for more than 17 weeks according to ACLDA Chairman H.M.N.B. Herath.

"The DLB's failure to keep the promises they made to buyers from the very inception of the lottery has resulted in the revenue loss to the Board, and their inability to absorb the losses any longer has resulted in the withdrawal of the lottery from the market," Herath said.

Herath told The Sunday Leader that from each draw the Board incurred a loss of nearly Rs. 2.3 million while there was a 40.3% drop in sales from the first draw onwards.

According to Herath the drop in sales took a turn for the worse in February when the DLB did not allow its clients to use the free entrance tickets given away with the lottery for the Deyata Kirula exhibition 2009.

"One month before the exhibition, the DLB released a new Deyata Kirula lottery and gave away a free entrance ticket for the exhibition. We were able to sell around 150,000 lottery tickets with the entrance tickets but when these people turned up at the exhibition they were not allowed to enter unless they produced the lottery ticket at the entrance. This was hilarious, as nobody keeps these sweep tickets if they haven't won any prizes.

It was later that we understood that the DLB had played out their clients and since then the sale of tickets dropped dramatically till the lottery was withdrawn from the market last week," Herath said. Chairman DLB, Upali Liyanage was not available for comment.