SB 227: National Lottery Act 2005 (Amendment) Bill, 2016

National Lottery Act 2005  (The Principal Act)

National Lottery Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016  [SB 227]

Section 10 marginal note –

“Act, 2004 No. 2”

Clause 3 replaces the marginal note with “Act, 2014 No. 64”

Section 13 (2) provides for proper record keeping of the accounts annually and for auditing by auditors appointed in accordance with guidelines supplied by the Auditor-General of the Federation

Deletion of Section 13(2) and replacing it with the same words but include the word “independent” in front of the word “auditors”. The last sentence is rephrased and the phrase “from time to time” added

Section 17 provides for granting of license by the President for operating national lottery or any other lottery

Deletion of Section 17 and replacing with a provision, which added “national lottery” in front of license. Including the sentence that the holder of such license shall carry out the type of lottery business on the license across the country (Clause 5)

Section 18 provides that anyone may submit an application for license to operate the business of lottery to the President through the Commission

Section 18 was renumbered as 18(1) and substituting the term “national lottery” with “Pari-mutuel lottery” (Clause 6)

The Clause inserts a new section 18(2) which provides that anyone may submit application for a license for the operation of fixed-odd lottery to the President through the Commission

Section 19(1) provides that the President may grant license to anyone or corporate body if they fulfill stipulated conditions

Clause 8 seeks to amend the Act by inserting “national lottery” before the word “license”. Deleting in sub-section (1) the phrase “national lottery or any lottery” and replacing with “the lottery being applied for”. The same for sub-section 1(b)

Section 20 provides that the license granted shall be valid a minimum for 10 years but not more than 15 years. However the President can extend the validity of the license at least a year before the expiry on the recommendation of the Commission

Clause 9 amends the Act under Section 20 by deleting the sub-section (1) and replace with another sub-section (1) which reads:

“Subject to sub-section (2) of this Section, a license granted under Section 19 of this Act shall be valid for a period of 15years…and such license shall be perpetually renewable upon application by the licensee”

The Clause deleted sub-section (2) and renumbered Section 20(3) to be 20(2)

Section 21 provides that the granted license may be revoked by the President under specified conditions in the Act

Clause 10 amends Section 21 by inserting after the word “license” in paragraph (b) of sub-section (3) the words “on the recommendation of the Commission”

Inserting a new paragraph (c) in sub-section (3) to read, “…the Commission may allow the license to remain in force, subject to any such further conditions as the Commission may deem necessary…”

Section 24(1) provides that the licensee shall establish a fund known as the “prize fund” into which a minimum of 50% of the proceeds of the lottery is paid

Clause 11 seeks to amend Section 24(1) by inserting “A holder of a national lottery license other than a fixed odds game license…” instead of “licensee” and change the percentage to 40%.

Clause 12 amends Section 24(3) by inserting the words “payable from the net” before the word “proceeds” and deleting “ for the first 5 years of the license, 25% in the subsequent 5 years and thereafter 27.5%

Clause 13 introduces a new section to be known as Section 24(A), which provides for the establishment of the “Fixed-odd-Prize-Fund” into which a minimum of 20% of the net proceeds of a fixed-odd lottery shall be paid.

(2) The fund shall be used exclusively for prizes in respect of such fixed-odd lotteries from which the proceeds were realized 

(3) A licensee that operates fixed-odd lottery shall pay to the Trust Fund established under Section 35 of the Act within a period not more than 90days after the determination of result, an amount of 40% of the net proceeds of the lottery.

Section 34 provides for general offences and penalties

Clause 14 amends Section 34 by deleting the words “or on inter-state basis” in subsection (3) and (4)

Section 35 (1) provides for the establishment of the National Lottery Trust Fund

Clause 16 amends Section 35(1) by substituting the word “credited” with the word “paid”

Clause 17 inserts a new section to be called Section 35A immediately after Section 34. This section shall provide for the establishment of the Lottery Companies Incomes tax to be managed by the Federal Board Inland Revenue

Section 45 – marginal note “Act, 2004 No. 2”

Clause 15 replaces the marginal note in Section 45 and replaces same with “Act, 2014 No. 64”

Section 57 is the interpretation section

Clause 19 seeks to add 12 additional terms to the interpretation section