NLCB FUNDING ISSUES

CCNTV6

The National Lotteries Control Board has released a public statement stating that the agreement between itself and its Agents requires Lottery Agents who collect bets on behalf of the NLCB to remit funds to the Lotteries Board within one week.   This is the NLCB's response to a dispute between the Board and its agents. Azaria Ifill reports.

Transcript

00:00The NLCB board and management says they remain committed to fulfilling their

00:04fiduciary duties and will take all necessary steps to ensure that any

00:09payments made to the lotteries board will be collected. Regarding the

00:14incapacity of certain agents to transmit funds on schedule, NLCB chairman Eustace

00:20Nancis stated, quote, it is important to recognize that these funds that are

00:25collected by our agents are being collected on behalf of the NLCB and the

00:31monies are in fact the property of the NLCB. Failure by any agent to remit any

00:36such funds to the NLCB on time and in full with the intent to permanently

00:41deprive the NLCB of the funds is an ineffect tantamount to unjust

00:47enrichment, end quote. Badeen Possad, the president of the Online Gaming

00:51Association of Trinidad and Tobago, gave his statement regarding the issue.

00:56We want to make it abundantly clear that we have no problem with NLCB trying to recover

01:02indebtedness. We have repeatedly said so. We are simply offering a different

01:08approach to recover that indebtedness. That's all. He says he would not like the

01:13NLCB to personalize these issues and to leave the terminal operational while

01:18arrangements are made for a payment plan with the agents. He also remarks

01:23that the NLCB is being too heavy-handed with this issue.

01:26They're being very, very heavy-handed because 36 agents out of 12,000 agents, by his own admission and his own figures, I mean you being

01:40high-handed with now 11,164 agents and he's saying that the headline on the

01:46release is that, I'm just paraphrasing here from what I remember, because of these delinquent agents, they haven't implemented these policies.

01:55After several failed negotiations, the NLCB issued pre-action protocol letters

02:01to delinquent agents last month. It said this was a final resort in its

02:06continued efforts to recover approximately $6 million in unpaid charges.

02:11Azaria Ifill, TV6 News.

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