Opposition Senator David Nakhid, has sent a pre-action protocol letter to the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB).
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Nakhid said he is following through on his promise to seek justice and restitution on behalf of the citizens of T&T who were duped, cheated and scammed by the apparently fixed Play Whe draw, conducted by the NLCB.
Nakhid said the suspicious Play Whe draw #22596 on November 15th, 2022 was pre-drawn before the live broadcast of the Mega Ball.
He said several persons would have bought tickets for the 4pm draw on that day and these aggrieved persons would have taken their complaints to him and have asked him to represent their interests.
He said the NLCB has certain duties of fairness and transparency in the general public, pursuant to trite common law principles.
Nakhid said despite NLCB purporting to conduct a livestream of the Mega Draw, TTT appeared to broadcast the results of the purported live draw prior to the completion of same.
He said the only plausible inference from such a series of events was that there was a predetermined outcome for the Mega Ball Draw, which was not carried out live as is customary or as was advertised.
Nakhid said while TTT apologised for the “error”, it did not explain how the winning combination could have possibly been known prior to the purported live draw and how could it have been displayed while the said draw was being broadcasted.
He pointed out that if there was a predetermined outcome of the draw then it would be contrary to being a game of chance and constitute cheating by the NLCB and/or its servants and/or agents.
The senator further stated that the public’s confidence in all NLCB’s games have been arguably undermined by the events outlined, which are in the public domain, and which therefore provides sufficient justification for the conduct of an investigation and report, pursuant to section 7 of the National Lotteries Control Board Act Chap 21.
Nakhid said should there be no immediate response forthcoming from the NLCB or it’s Line Minister Colm Imbert, Minister of Finance, the process of a judicial review will be initiated.
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