Vietlott lottery shop 'underground' appears in Nghe An

(Baonghean.vn) - Since November 14, a shop has appeared on Nguyen Van Cu Street (Vinh City) with a sign saying it is a Vietlott lottery shop. However, when customers enter the shop, they are advised to buy a pre-printed lottery ticket for 11,000 VND.

» Is the store with Vietlott sign in Nghe An operating against regulations?

After just over 4 months of official operation, the computerized lottery form of Vietnam Computerized Lottery Company Limited (Vietlott) in some southern provinces has attracted a large number of participants. The information about 4 lucky customers winning prizes worth tens of billions of VND released by Vietlott has created great attraction for this new lottery form.

The store hangs a sign selling Vietlott lottery tickets on Nguyen Van Cu street.

Following that fever, since November 14, a shop has appeared in Vinh City with a signboard of Vietlott Lottery Shop. This shop is located on Nguyen Van Cu Street, Vinh City, with a prominent signboard, attracting passersby. In front of the shop, it advertises that this is an American-style lottery ticket with a huge prize of up to 150 billion VND, for only 10,000 VND.

On November 16, posing as a customer wanting to buy lottery tickets, the reporter went to the store. There, an employee was sitting at the counter. When the reporter said he wanted to buy a Vietlott lottery ticket, the employee said that the store was out of pre-printed tickets and invited customers to come buy them tomorrow.

On November 17, the reporter continued to visit the store and was given a stack of pre-printed lottery tickets by this employee for the reporter to choose from. When asked why the store hung a sign saying it sold lottery tickets but sold pre-printed tickets to customers, this employee said that the store had not yet installed a terminal so the tickets were pre-printed and then sold to customers. It is worth mentioning that the printed price on the ticket was 10,000 VND but this employee charged the customer 11,000 VND. The 1,000 VND higher than the ticket price was explained by this employee as “transportation costs”?

According to Mr. Hai, who introduced himself as the store manager, the store's sale of pre-printed lottery tickets is in accordance with regulations and customers are still guaranteed the same rights as self-selected lottery tickets. When the reporter questioned that Nghe An has not yet been equipped with terminal equipment by Vietnam Computerized Lottery Company Limited, but why the store hung a sign selling self-selected lottery tickets, this person explained that these lottery tickets were issued in Ho Chi Minh City and transported by plane to Nghe An.

“The store is not a level 1 agent of the company but only a subordinate unit of an agent in Ho Chi Minh City. If the customer wins the prize, they will receive the prize directly at the store. Regarding legal procedures, the store has submitted the documents through the one-stop department,” said Mr. Hai. When the reporter asked to review the store’s legal procedures, Mr. Hai refused.

Nghe An Department of Planning and Investment said that in early November 2016, a person submitted a set of documents to the Department’s Reception and Results Department to apply for registration to trade in computerized lottery tickets. However, this person later withdrew the documents.

According to regulations, the area for issuing computerized lottery tickets through the terminal distribution method: The computerized lottery company selects a number of provinces and cities nationwide to deploy the issuance of computerized lottery tickets according to regulations. The computerized lottery company reports to the Ministry of Finance for approval of the specific business area before implementation.

The pre-printed lottery ticket that the store employee sold to the customer on November 17.

“Up to this point, Nghe An has not been approved by the Ministry of Finance for the Vietnam Computerized Lottery Company to issue computerized lottery tickets and the company has not installed terminal equipment. The authorities have only heard about it but have not yet conducted an inspection because this store has just appeared and has not been licensed by a state agency,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Deputy Head of the Corporate Finance Department (Department of Finance).

Talking with Mr. Phan Tinh - Chairman and Director of Nghe An Lottery Company Limited, the company knew about the store's activities. According to Mr. Tinh, when he got the information, he directly called Mr. Nguyen Thanh Dam - Deputy General Director of Vietnam Computerized Lottery Company Limited.

Through discussion, Mr. Dam affirmed that in Nghe An, the company has not installed a terminal yet, so the fact that the store sells pre-printed lottery tickets is an illegal activity. If it is early, in Nghe An, the company will install a terminal and open an agency to sell Vietlott lottery tickets at the end of 2017 or early 2018.

Nguyen Hung