Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2013 | Page 85

Getting to know the
National Lotteries Board
Our business is to ensure that fair play is respected in running
the National Lottery and smaller fundraising and promotional
competitions. Funding from the National Lottery benefits
thousands of organisations and builds communities.

The power to do good
The Nati onal Lotteries Board (NLB), which gets its powers from
the Lotteries Act of 1997, is appointed by the Minister of Trade
and Industry to inter alia:
• Protect the public by ensuring honest and fair running of the
National Lottery and other competitions.
• Make certain that society benefitsfrom the National Lottery by
distributing a share of the takings to organisations that serve
the public good.

Protecting the public
The National Lottery is run by a private company in terms of
a licence awarded every five to eight years by the Minister of
Trade and Industry. The NLB’s job is to ensure that the Lottery
Operator works strictly within the law and in a manner that is
honest and efficient yields good returns, and is fair to everyone
involved.
We do this by:
• Assisting the Minister to select the best possible candidate
for the Lottery Operator’s licence.
• Continually monitoring Lottery operations through
inspections and other hands-on methods.
• Advising the Minister about strengthening the laws that
apply to the Lottery.
The NLB also controls the running of smaller competitions
organised by non-profit organisations to raise funds and by
private companies to promote their products. Organisers
of competitions to raise funds from the public are required
to register with the NLB. This is to protect members of the
public against schemes to defraud them through fake “charity
competitions”.

The NLDTF
The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) is
established in terms of the Lotteries Act which designates
members of the NLB as trustees of the NLDTF. It is their job
to safeguard this money, invest it wisely, and ensure that it is
put to the best possible use to benefit good causes. The NLB
is also responsible for reporting annually to Parliament on the
management of the NLDTF.
At present the percentage of National Lottery revenue that is
transferred to the NLDTF is 34%. This is fixed in the licence
granted to the current National Lottery operator. Each week
this percentage of National Lottery revenue is transferred to the
NLDTF.
The allocation of NLDTF funds to the different sectors is set
down in regulations and is currently as follows:
The funds for Miscellaneous Purposes are used for various

activities that fall outside the scope of the main three sectors.
Board members of the NLB allocate such grants in accordance
with conditions set by the Minister of Trade and Industry.
The Lotteries Act also provided for allocation of funds to the
Reconstruction and Development Programme but this fell away
when government abolished the RDP Fund and decided to
channel resources for reconstruction and development through
individual government departments.

Ensuring that society benefits
A small amount from every Lottery ticket sold goes into the
National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). Over the
course of a year, this grows to a huge amount. For example, in
2010 the fund received R1.5 billion from the Lottery.
Members of the NLB are guardians/trustees of the NLDTF. It is
our job to safeguard this money, invest it wisely, and ensure that
it is put to the best possible use to benefit good causes.
We are assisted in this by three committees, known as
Distributing Agencies, which are appointed by the Minister of
Trade and Industry to award grants from the NLDTF.
They are appointed for their expertise in the fields for which
grants are allocated:
• Charities, which includes a vast range of welfare and social
development interventions.
• Arts, Culture and National Heritage, including Environment.
• Sport and Recreation.
The NLDTF also makes occasional Miscellaneous Purposes
grants for projects that might fall outside any of the above fields
but meet requirements set by the Minister of Trade and Industry.
The NLB and the Distributing Agencies are supported by the
full-time staff of the NLB at our Pretoria, Polokwane and East
London offices.

5%
Misc
22% Sports &
Recreation

45% Charities
28% Arts, Culture &
National heritage

CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW
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