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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesUNNAMED PARTY WANTS TO BUY THE V.I. LOTTERY

UNNAMED PARTY WANTS TO BUY THE V.I. LOTTERY

The Turnbull administration is considering a written proposal to buy the V.I. Lottery system.
In a telephone interview Monday, Rudolph Krigger, financial advisor to Gov. Charles Turnbull, said the government received the proposal about two weeks ago, shortly after the governor mentioned in his State of the Territory Address that he would consider privatizing several government functions, including the lottery.
Krigger said he did not have the paperwork before him and could not remember the name of the company or individuals involved or any other details of the proposal, except that it entailed the entire the system.
"It's still being reviewed," he said, adding, "I understand there's another [offer] in the mail."
George Golden, acting V.I. Lottery director, said he believes the law prohibits the sale. "No government lottery can be sold," he said, although some of lottery functions might be contracted out to private companies.
Currently, the V.I. Lottery contracts for the production of its instant lottery tickets, Golden said, while the traditional lottery tickets are produced at the government printing office at Property and Procurement.
Krigger said the legality of selling the system is one thing "being reviewed" and the potential impact on workers is another. "It is not something that would happen overnight," he added.
The U.S. Inspector General's Office is about to begin a previously scheduled audit of V.I. Lottery system operations in 1998 and 1999.
Golden said the system has not been doing well in recent years. "We're paying all our own expenses," he said, but "not making sufficient profit."
He blamed this on the general downturn in the economy and the fact that the Virgin Islands game is small compared with the Puerto Rico Lottery. Although Puerto Rico's lottery is illegal in the territory, it has for years been stiff competition.
The V.I. Lottery is supposed to channel at least 5 percent of its profits to the General Fund, but Golden said earnings have been so small that the contribution has dwindled to almost nothing.

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