By Upatissa Pethiyagoda –
Dr. Upatissa Pethiyagoda
It all started with The “Hospital Lottery Board” Act of 10 January 1965. The declared objective of the HLB was to set up or improve State Hospitals. To the best of everyone’s knowledge, not a single new hospital was set up and none have been improved by this means during the past 52 years. But meanwhile the Lotteries have multiplied. There are accompanying Boards and Staff with National, Development and Airport Lotteries. Most hold weekly draws (not to mention the perennial Lotto). Numbering at least fifteen and, limited only by the availability of new and inane though novel, names: Mahajana, Mahapola, Govisetha, Shanida Wasana etc. Ticket cost have inflated from the original =/50 cents to Rs 20/=.
To satisfy gaming instincts, the lotteries are augmented by Betting Shops, Casinos and Raffles. State revenues are bolstered by various Fees and levies ranging from entry fees for Casinos, VAT, other Taxes etc. together providing a handy supply of finances for the public purse. Small wonder that moral and other restraints are overlooked.
The situation in regard to gaming is perplexingly complicated, with many Acts and Regulations. A frequently used term is “grey areas”. This encourages suspicion that this may be deliberate, covering many sins and providing plenty of loopholes. Interestingly, while moral compunctions led to the banning of horse racing, while retaining bucket shops (euphemistically called Betting Centres) where one may bet on foreign horse races and on cricket matches! A random look at an Audit Report of The National Lottery reveals the many strictures passed on the Administration. They are ignored and no corrections are manifest. In organizations where astronomical revenues are handled, correspondingly large leakages may also occur.
State Lotteries are only instruments of daylight public robbery. Casinos and Betting shops are openly run for huge profits and can be accepted as rewards for private enterprise and tourist attractions. State run lotteries can be expected to be less usurious. Are the Lotteries fair?. I have persistently drawn attention to the fact that they are not and invited those with a mathematical bent to calculate the Probability of a Win. By my own reckoning on a sample lottery – the Mahajana Lottery, I was absolutely staggered. The chances of a win is so tiny amounts to a colossal rip-off, whose extent may rival the spectacular Bond Scam. It has gone on quietly un-noticed for very long. Officially permitted casinos are required by Law to distribute a much higher percentage (30%?) of the stake money as winnings. They still make a killing.
The urge to gamble is inherent in humankind – the prospect to earn without effort is not uncommon even in State Institutions. It would not be “Politically Correct” to identify even one outstanding example.
The greatest victims of this fraud are the poor – attracted by the hopeless belief that the bonanza of a win, will relieve them of miserable poverty. The more sophisticated rich do not indulge, being a poor investment – not that they are unaware that “a little more would be welcome”. One does not need to be a moral crusader to condemn games of chance (all games, in a sense are prone to chance), to protest this cruel fleecing of a misguided poor. This is ironic in a society which is wildly disturbed by a budget proposal to reduce the tax on Beer. Are we a nation is so eI am quite amazed, that while lottery ticket sales may not go beyond 5 P.M of the date of the draw, by 10 P.M, the winner can be announced on TV, along with the town in which the ticket has been sold. This lightning speed is strange in a country where a murder trial could take 12 years and a civil action 20 to conclude ! What of unsold tickets? Are the authorities so innocent as to exclude the likelihood that the Ticket Agent may collect the winnings on unsold tickets through a proxy?
Assuming that the accounts are properly audited, where do the heavy profits go? Are part of them destined for those great “sink holes”, the President’s and Mahapola. Both of these probably leak more copiously than perishing pipelines. Both Funds could benefit from sound auditing and by public disclosure of income and disposal of profits. So far, the President’s Fund which is a bad idea to begin with, has been grossly abused to benefit the few – by-passes to the favoured few and on expensive hospital stays even for those who fall out of Hotel windows when in adventurous mood?
A Probability study would be an exercise for Mathematicians/Statisticians and the finances for Auditors/Accountants.
Will this cry be heeded?
