Photo: PM John Briceño responds to Hon. Tracy Taegar-Panton’s defense of award of gaming license to Brads Gaming Group Ltd. in 2020

New lotteries regime will feature government-owned company and 4 master agents

BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 22, 2023

Though no date has been announced for the resumption of the sale of Boledo and other games of chance owned by the government, Prime Minister John Briceño inside the House of Representatives on Friday, May 19, provided details of the new lotteries regime being set up.

According to PM Briceño, they will create a government-owned company called Belize Government Lotteries Ltd. (BGLL). Its mandate will be to promote, conduct and manage the government lotteries and distribute the profits to the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme and the official charities fund (particularly for sports and education). BGLL is to be administered by a board of directors that is expected to meet regularly “to set corporate management and oversight policies of the corporation. The day-to-day management of the corporation will be administered by a managing director who will be assisted by an IT specialist, a financial comptroller/administrator, customer service, marketing and a quality assurance compliance manager,” said the Prime Minister.

Further, there will be a tender process to select four master agents who will be allowed to distribute Boledo – one each for the north, south, east and west of the country. BGLL is also expected to build a digital platform and set up an extensive national sale distribution network through the master agents. The master agents will have sub-agents and are to conduct electronic sales. The master agents will also be required to have a bank surety of a specific value to cover winnings. Sub-agents will be allowed to make payments up to a certain value, but redeeming centers in each major town are to handle the larger payouts.

In a future configuration of the government lotteries regime, the plan is for buyers to be able to purchase tickets from the comfort of their homes using just their phones. They would also be able to easily check winning numbers and consult lost tickets through a master computer at BGLL’s corporate headquarters that is to record all sales of the sub-agents – including number and amount purchased.
 
While introducing the Lotteries Control (Amendment) Bill 2023 that provides for the changes being implemented, PM Briceño made some glaring revelations about the administration of the government lotteries under the previous privatized regime. The PM provided figures from a report he says was prepared for the first 10 years of government lotteries since it was taken over by Brads Gaming Company Ltd. in 2010. He qualified his statements, saying that the report referenced the first 10 years under “Brads # 1” because “they still use Brads to confuse people, but dah di same group.” He then listed, “the sales started off at $5.8 million; then $10 million; $9.4 million; $12.8 million, $12.3 million, $11.5 million; 2016 gaan up to $10.8; in 2017 it gaan down to $5.8 million; gaan up in 2018 to $16.7; 2019 when dehn mi di look fi want renew di contract, dehn increase di sales to $25.8 million; and then 2020, the portion for the first part of the year, they had $7.1 million. So, they have a sales total of $128.6 million. In business tax they paid $2.2 million. So, the annual tax they paid was $22.2 million or 17.3% of sales.”

From there, the PM highlighted that in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Brads Gaming Group Ltd. (BGGL) reported sales of $18.7 million. However, in August 2021 after the People’s United Party administration came to power and the Lotteries Committee wrote them a first letter asking for information, “all of a sudden, sales gaan from $18.7 million to $43.3 million … In 2022 – guess what? Sales gaan up: $50.2 million. In 10 years they reported $128 million; now in one year, $50 million!” In two years of the PUP, Briceño says BGGL reported $125.6 million, of which the People of Belize only received $11 million in taxes and license fees.    
  
The Prime Minister made the point that in the first 10 years of privatized government lotteries, Barrow administration officials did no checks of Brads to ensure the company was complying with its obligations under its license.

Later in the House meeting, Hon. Tracy Panton, who was the Minister of State directly responsible for the Gaming Control Board that approved the license to Brads Gaming Group Ltd. in 2020, rose to defend the license award. She outlined that the “renewal of the gaming management contract to run the government lotteries was not automatic. In fact, Madam Speaker, the contract agreement that was finalized was far different than the first contract agreement that was provided back in 2010. The terms and conditions were strengthened to ensure that there would be greater transparency and accountability, particularly in the reporting process to the government … When the application was made by the Brads Gaming Group Ltd. to the Government of Belize back in 2019, there was no third-party investor out of Cayman. Like the Belize Airport Concession Company, it was a consortium of Belizean investors at the time.”

She continued, “so to suggest in this honorable House that there was some kind of clandestine approach to the awarding of this contract is completely untrue and calls into question the integrity of the Gaming Control Board, calls into question the integrity of the Auditor General’s Office, calls into question the integrity of the Contractor General’s Office who reviewed the entire process — and Prime Minister said in his last meeting that some of his members complained about the Contractor General because he was so thorough in his review of contracts — and calls into question the integrity of the Solicitor General’s Chambers.” Hon. Panton proclaimed that there was no ministerial or other interference in the award of the Brads contract in 2020.

The Prime Minister, in response, questioned why no government official did any follow-up to ensure Brads was complying with the terms of its license. He affirmed, “We did not cancel this contract out of malice. We cancelled the contract because they refused to comply with the requirements of the contract that they signed. And because of that, we are having an opportunity to fix it, and for the Government to have complete control and management of the Boledo for the benefit of all Belizeans.” He added, “Everybody and dehn granny mi know that Brads mi wahn win that contract.”