Fenabanca plans to sue Dominican Republic’s Loteria Nacional over number of draws

Dominican Republic's Fenabanca will take legal action against the Lotería Nacional if it carries out its plan to reduce the number of available draws.
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Dominican Republic’s Federación Nacional de Bancas de Loterías (Fenabanca) has assured that it will take legal action against the Lotería Nacional if it carries out its plan to reduce the number of available draws.

The local lottery industry is currently facing a crisis after former Administrator Luis Michell Dicent unveiled a fraud scheme involving the May 1 draw, which led to an investigation for possible additional fraud and the suspension for 60 days of the administrator.

At the same time, the Chamber of Deputies is working on a project that could suspend the draws of the Loteria Nacional for seven months, until the Dominican Republic can establish a stronger gambling regulation. Additionally, there’s a proposal to reduce the number of draws from 14 to 7.

Rubén Jiménez, President of Fenabanca, told El Despertador de Noticias that the 14 draws are included in the contracts already signed between the federation and the national lottery.

Thus, Fenabanca is planning “the actions that we have to do to sustain [this number of draws] because they’re not doing us a favour.”

Fenabanca had previously voiced its support for the regulation of gambling and lottery that President Luis Abinader had in mind. Both the federation and the president understand that regulating these activities in the Dominican Republic is necessary.

“Fenabanca and the Association of Lottery Concessionaires (Asocol) welcome the position of President Abinader in creating a decree that regularizes once for all activities of gambling and lottery agencies in the Dominican Republic,” said Jiménez.