In the Land Down Under, the battle between synthetic lottery operator Lottoland and the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) is, once again, heating up. Over the past week, Lottoland has threatened to take its fight to Australia’s highest courts, while also accusing its arch-rival of seriously over representing its numbers. Here’s where the fight stands this week.
Early last week, Lottoland dropped a bombshell allegation against the ALNA, claiming that it didn’t represent nearly as many small businesses as it claims. According to Lottoland, which backed its claims with information from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the ALNA has only about 700 members. In its battle to save small businesses from the ravages of online lotteries, the ALNA has long claimed to be representing more than 4,000 members.
In an interview with Gaming Intelligence, Lottoland Australia chief executive Luke Brill explained the importance of this alleged deception saying:
We’re shocked and disappointed to find out that a body that the Government believes has over 4,000 newsagents nationally as members has in fact only 707 paid members – about 80 per cent less than claimed. This raises major questions about the true intent of ALNA and whether it has misled not just the Government and others MPs, but whether it has also misled the public.
In Brill’s view, the ALNA is simply a small group that’s hellbent on preserving a lucrative monopoly and doesn’t mind fudging the facts in that effort.
For his part, Brill expressed his group’s willingness to fight to the bitter end, no matter what it takes. In this case, however, that bitter end will likely be Australia’s equivalent of the Supreme Court, the High Tribunal…which means this case will likely drag on for quite some time.