The director general, National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) Mr Lanre Gbajabiamila has promised that the commission would deploy every available legal instrument to weed out all criminal elements operating within the Nigerian Gaming Industry.
Mr Gbajabiamila gave this warning on the heels of discovering a forged Sports Betting Permit of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission by some criminal elements operating in Lagos.
He stated that the criminals have been arrested and are being prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others who could be nursing similar ideas.
According to a statement by the head of public affairs, Mr Magnus Ekechukwu, “It is quite appalling to discover that at this time and age, people could want to defraud the federal government believing they would not be arrested. Let all criminals steer clear of the lottery industry because I can assure them that they would be arrested and prosecuted.
“The criminals already arrested would serve as an example to other criminal elements with intention to defraud the government. We would neither allow nor tolerate such criminality in our industry,” the statement said.
The DG stated further that the commission stands for integrity, transparency and accountability which are the hallmarks of the gaming businesses in Nigeria while stressing that any operator who fails to heed these core values runs the risk of violating the rules and guidelines of the commission; a situation, he said, attracts stringent consequences.
He called on staff of the commission, licensed operators as well as the general public to be more vigilant in the quest to fish out illegal operators who want to thwart the good effort of the commission in building a robust Nigerian gaming industry, while also encouraging licensed operators to always play by the rules.
