Irelands Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has said that the National Lottery will “run out of steam” unless it can sell more Lotto tickets online, the Irish Independent newspaper reports.
Howlin explained that there are severe restrictions on Lotto ticket sales online, which means that only 3 percent of tickets are sold this way compared with up to 15 percent in other European lotteries.
The Minister was justifying his intention to permit National Lottery tickets to be sold online more easily in the future in a discussion on a bill designed to sell off the National Lottery licence for 20 years this year.
Interestingly, the Minister revealed that government’s intention is eventually to have an independent lottery regulator who would additionally be responsible for the licensing and regulation of online and other gambling operators in the Irish market.