E-gambling, raffles roil the once powerful Lottery

Santo Domingo.- The avalanche of raffles, electronic lotteries, “palettes” and other games of chance nationwide has various social sectors demanding regulations, on concerns of widespread fraud and damages to households when they result in addiction.

The daily lotteries and drawings for prizes in banks, supermarkets and many other businesses has a stark contrast with the dwindling sales of tickets for the State-owned National Lottery, once the powerful official agency which offered jobs to thousands of vendors and office personnel, but whose main building has been turned into a virtually empty hulk.

But for Simon Aquino, a lottery vendor in the market at Villa Consuelo quoted by elnacional.com.do, the explanation lies in the economic crisis and, especially, when the tickets don’t include new prizes which had spurred gamblers during many decades.