Lotto fat cats rip off the poor

Before we air our opinion on the dodgy things happening at the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), let us declare that we have been threatened with legal action for stories we have run about the body and its officials and connections.

Those stories have come from the small, but brave and professional, GroundUp news organisation. Over many months, years even, they have been doggedly pursuing details of how lottery money was disbursed to friends and family of those making funding decisions.

It took a long time for Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel to launch an investigation, but the ball is now well and truly rolling, with the Special Investigative Unit recently raiding the offices of the NLC and seizing documents and computers.

We wait to see the outcome of the legal processes but, having run the GroundUp stories over a long period, we cannot help but be sickened by the allegations of looting which they have served up.

This is, like the theft of Covid-19 emergency money intended for personal protective equipment for health workers, morally abominable conduct.

Poor people have been ripped off twice – first in spending their money on Lotto tickets and then on seeing money meant for them feeding the fat cats.

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