Vietnam Lottery Company (Vietlott) launched its Mega 6/45 computerised lottery game last July. The jackpot was initially set at VND12 billion (USD537,600). The jackpot is rolled over if no winner is found.  

In a document sent to the government, ministries and agencies on Vietlott’s operations, the Ministry of Finance said the computerised lottery was jointly run by Vietlott and a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Berjaya Corp Bhd. This has been approved by the Vietnamese government. However, Vietlott remains a wholly state-owned firm under the management of the ministry.

This is a very new kind of lottery in Vietnam, so Vietlott would learn from the experiences of the Malaysian partner and help to mitigate risks, the ministry explained. It also added that since becoming operational, Vietlott has paid taxes to the local budget of the provinces or cities its agents are based as regulated.

Earlier, the ministry has informed localities of Vietlott’s business plan and asked them to co-operate for the implementation. The company is now present in 12 cities and provinces with more than 2,000 selling points.

Traditional lottery firms recently complained that the massive sales of computerised lottery tickets at unregistered locations, was creating unhealthy competition. Meanwhile, many localities fear that the infrastructure investment in the provinces would be affected by falling traditional lottery revenue due to this competition. 

Regarding the concern, the Ministry of Finance said that market demand for this new kind of lottery is very big, particularly in localities where the business has not yet been carried out. So, several organisations or individuals have sold Vietlott tickets despite not yet being licensed. The ministry has requested Vietlott to deal with this problem.

Vietlott announced it earned total revenues of VND1.6 trillion (USD70.5 million) in 2016.

Vietlott’s revenue stood at a mere VND8.7 billion in the first six months of 2016, leading the firm to incur losses of VND4 billion. However, in the following months, the company saw its revenue jump hundreds of times. In particular, its revenue in the second half of last year was 183 times higher than in the first half.

Dtinews