The government of Namibia has deepened its efforts to establish a national lottery to raise revenue for a variety of social welfare programs.
Pohamba Shifeta, the minister of environment, forestry, and tourism, confirmed this, saying that the government also intends to control the lottery and gaming industries, which are reported to have around 20 000 illicit slot machines. The notion of a state lottery has been on the government’s books since 1994, when the Cabinet authorized it for the first time.
On the other hand, the lottery law was only enacted by parliament in 2017.
Shifeta’s ministry formed a six-member board last year to execute this law, dubbed the Lotteries Act of 2017, which would be responsible for providing lottery licenses and establishing the State Lottery Trust Fund. The lottery would provide the government with a new source of revenue. “All existing lotteries will be regulated, and they will be given time to register,” the minister said.
According to the bill, the earnings from the national lottery would be used for a variety of government purposes, including subsidizing educational and sporting organizations.
He further stated that once the slot machines are registered, they would be connected to a central monitoring system to track all key gambling machine occurrences. This method will also assist the government in determining the amount of tax that slot machine operators must pay.