"The Draft Lotteries Amendment Bill primarily aims at ensuring the more effective functioning of the National Lotteries Board and the application and distribution and adjudication of grants (through the establishment of a specified distributing agency) under the Lotteries Act," explains Leana Engelbrecht, associate in the Competition and Regulatory Practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.
Engelbrecht explains that, in particular, "the Draft Lotteries Amendment Bill aims to delineate which persons are entitled to act as members of the National Lotteries Board by, for example, listing those persons that are disqualified to act as members of the National Lotteries Board and allowing the minister to terminate the membership of a member of the National Lotteries Board should such a member fail to attend two meetings of the National Lotteries Board consecutively, without prior notification and approval of such absence. The functions of the National Lotteries Board are also greatly expanded upon by broadening the National Lotteries Board's functions in respect of the application, research, consideration, granting and appeal of grants.
"Interestingly (particularly in the context of the current licence holder's five-year licence expiring in 2014), the Draft Lotteries Amendment Bill allows for the minister to appoint and authorise an organ of state to conduct the National Lottery for a period of not exceeding eight years provided that there are justifiable grounds not to issue a licence as conventionally allowed for," Engelbrecht adds.
