Lottoland offers revenue sharing sweetener

Wednesday 18th of October 2017

Foreign lottery betting company Lottoland is offering newsagents a “peace deal” in an attempt to alleviate calls to outlaw the company’s business model, local media reports.

Over the last few months, Lottoland has been under siege from state governments pushing to put an end to the company’s lottery betting or “synthetic lottery” model.

The “peace deal” involves a partnership model that would allow newsagents to take a 10 percent cut of every bet one of their customers makes with Lottoland.

However, the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association has dismissed the offer, labeling it as a ploy to stop the campaign against lottoland.

“It would appear that Lottoland’s recent offerings are really desperate token gestures and a PR stunt, rather than a solution to a problem that not only affects news and lottery agents but also affects consumers who are misled,” said association head Adam Joy.

The association previously launched a $5 million campaign against Lottoland.

Luke Brill, chief executive of Lottoland, said that newsagents were an essential part of communities and should benefit from the shift to online betting.

“Newsagents will always have a longstanding cultural link to lotteries, but as it stands, there is no infrastructure for them to take advantage of overseas lotteries and online betting. This needs to change,” Mr. Brill told Australian newspaper Herald Sun.

“This model complements in-store lottery purchases and opens a channel for these businesses to benefit from the emerging pool of online-only punters,” he added.

The lottery betting company also said it would welcome the introduction of a 15 percent point-of-consumption tax.

Brill said Lottoland would be the only business in Australia asking governments to tax them more.

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