Lotto shops protest as rival outlets multiply

B.K. Bansal says his shop has been saved by its reputation for selling winners. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

More than 200 Lotto shop owners are in revolt over Lotteries Commission plans to open hundreds of new outlets and let people buy their tickets online.

The new outlets, sometimes across the road from long-established Lotto shops, have cut hundreds of thousands of dollars off the market value of some stores.

A former store owner who sold in December said it was unethical to increase the number of outlets despite declining Lotto sales.

"That's why I sold. It's the worst business to be in. They can change the rules from black to white."

Lotto sales dropped from $644 million in 1999 to $540 million in 2003, before rebounding temporarily to $629 million in the year to last June after two multimillion-dollar Powerball jackpots.

Sales slipped back to $306 million in the six months to December and are forecast at $602 million for the full year to June.

Lotto was launched in 1987 with 877 outlets, but the number had dwindled to 610 by 2003.

Lotteries Commission chief executive Trevor Hall, who took charge in February 2003, said Lotto had to follow the shoppers to new destination stores such as supermarkets and The Warehouse.

He has set a target of one outlet for every 4000 people - or 1000 shops - by June 2007.

He has opened 95 new outlets in the past nine months. Most are in Auckland, the North Shore and the Bay of Plenty.

Some established retailers are surviving the onslaught. B.K. Bansal, of Schofields Stationers in Papatoetoe, said his shop had been saved by its history of selling winning tickets, despite a new Lotto counter in the New World supermarket in the same block.

"We are known as a lucky shop. Even New World employees come and buy their tickets here."

But another established Lotto shop in a suburban mall said its business had dropped 25 per cent since a new outlet opened in a New World supermarket about 10m away a year ago.

Colliers property agent Malcolm Southwick said he had sold one urban Lotto shop several times for about $300,000 but its price dropped to $125,000 in the latest sale.

Another source cited a suburban shop bought for $250,000 and sold recently for $155,000.

Mr Hall said the commission hoped to use a $50 million online network due to go live by October next year to win new business for its retailers, such as topping up phone cards and prepaid electricity coupons. It also planned to launch a midweek game by October this year and interactive online gambling games on the new network.