Lotto contract renewed

La Libanaise des Jeux (LLDJ) will remain the sole gaming company responsible for lottery games in the country.

“The new management contract is for the next seven years,” said Rainier Jreissati, founder and Chairman of the board of JIG Holding, the mother company of LLDJ.

He said that the Government raised its share of the gross total sales to 41.5 percent. “When we were firstly assigned to manage the lottery games, this share was 38 percent. Our contract was extended, but the share was increased to 41 percent,” he said.

Over the last 12 years, LLDJ secured $400 million for the Government.

The company has been managing the lottery since 2002 and has modernized it with electronic equipment and expanded the types of game and the sales network.

The Ministry of Finance, through the Department of Tenders called for a bid last summer to assign a new company for the management of the lottery. In addition to LLDJ, a foreign company had bid for the contract, which lost to the incumbent.

Jreissati said that they are planning to increase the points of sale. “We will also launch a new mobile app that allows users here and abroad to play using their mobile devices,” he said.

Established in 2005, the company launched its first lottery business in Bahrain. LLDJ became one of the few companies worldwide to sell lottery through SMS. It now has 3,550 points of sale in six countries.