00:00Playaway and Lotto Booth agents are threatening to shut down their booths if NLCB fails to
00:06meet with them and reconsider a number of policy changes it plans to implement come
00:12December 1st, 2024.
00:15At a meeting in Coover on Sunday morning, members of the Online Gaming Agents Association
00:21of Trinidad and Tobago also decided on collectively taking legal action against NLCB for issues
00:29they believe are unfair and have long been penalized for.
00:33President of the association Dean Possard says they have serious concerns with the latest
00:38changes which include a discontinuation of proof of payment.
00:44Agents are required to remit weekly collections from machines at night safes instead of bank
00:49tellers.
00:50They don't want you to prove to them that you deposited money.
00:55So now they're telling you you deposited money and they're not giving you the opportunity
01:00to prove that you deposited money.
01:02So I don't understand that at all.
01:04Non-payment considered last year.
01:06So they're playing police now, right?
01:09And the non-payment, as I say, is what I'm telling you.
01:11Their non-payment is that they may receive the money yet, you know.
01:14Not that you have paid the money, you know, that they received the money on time.
01:18He says in addition to agents facing low sales, battling against illegal machines and their
01:24own bills, they're now being saddled with excessive fees.
01:28They're targeting us now as a source of revenue, as far as I'm concerned.
01:33Because if you raise weekly settlement fee from $15 to $100, you're targeting me to get
01:37some extra money.
01:39If you increase reactivation fee from $100 to $500 to $1,000, you're targeting me.
01:44If I get suppressed and I take out a bond for $25,000, you're targeting me again.
01:49The agents say they are ready to hire an attorney to fight this battle for them.
01:54And in the interim, in order to get NLCB to listen to their concerns, they are threatening
02:00a week-long shutdown.
02:01Let me say each agent here deposit $20,000, minimum $20,000 a week.
02:10How many agents we have in the country?
02:111,500?
02:12Let me say $1,000 now, man.
02:13I have 1,000 agents.
02:14Check how much money we lost.
02:17Right?
02:19Not we, but NLCB.
02:21See what's going on.
02:23We need to take people by the horn.
02:25We're giving them a week.
02:26We're giving them a week.
02:28Cindy Raghuban Tika Singh, TV6 News.
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