National Lottery Act , 1986

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

“the Company” has the meaning assigned to it by section 10 of this Act;

“company”, “director”, “share” and “subsidiary” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by the Companies Act, 1963;

“the Fund” means the National Lottery Fund established under section 8 of this Act;

“hold”, in relation to a national lottery, includes establish, promote, organise and conduct;

“licence” means a licence under section 3 of this Act;

“licensee” means the holder of a licence for the time being in force;

“lottery game” means any game, competition or other procedure in which or whereby prizes (whether money prizes or otherwise) are distributed by lot or chance among persons participating in the game, competition or other procedure;

“manager” means a person appointed under section 30 (2) of this Act in relation to the Company;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Finance;

“the National Lottery” means any lottery game or combination of lottery games held by the Minister or held under a licence in accordance with the rules contained in a scheme under section 28 (1) of this Act in relation to that game or each of those games;

“National Lottery ticket” means a ticket entitling its owner to participate in the National Lottery;

“winning ticket” means a ticket the owner of which is entitled to a prize in the National Lottery.

2 Power of Minister to hold or procure holding of National Lottery.

2.—(1) The Minister may hold or procure the holding of the National Lottery in accordance with the provisions of this Act, but the Minister shall not hold or procure (otherwise than under the licence) the holding of a lottery game at a time when a licence is in force.

(2) The Minister shall have all such powers as may be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the holding by him of the National Lottery and the provisions of this Act shall, as respects the National Lottery if and when it is held by the Minister, apply and have effect with any necessary modifications or adaptations in relation to the National Lottery if and when it is so held and to the Minister as they apply and have effect in relation to the National Lottery held by the Company and to the Company.

3 Grant by Minister of licence to hold National Lottery.

3.—(1) (a) The Minister may grant a licence to a person authorising the holding on behalf of the Minister of the National Lottery.

(b) Not more than one licence under this subsection shall be in force at any time.

(2) Upon or at any time after the expiration or revocation of a licence, the Minister may grant a further licence under subsection (1) of this section to the person who was the holder of the first-mentioned licence.

(3) When a licence is granted to a person for the first time, the duration of the licence shall be such period not exceeding 10 years as the Minister may determine; the duration of any subsequent licence granted to the person shall be such period as the Minister may determine.

(4) The Minister may attach to a licence such terms and conditions as he considers necessary or expedient and specifies in the licence and may, at any time during the currency of a licence, by notice in writing given to the licensee, amend its terms or conditions or insert into it or delete from it terms or conditions.

(5) The Minister may at any time, for reasons that seem to him to be sufficient and are stated in a notice in writing given to the licensee, revoke a licence.

(6) The Minister shall not grant a licence to a person unless he is satisfied as to the suitability and competence of the person to hold, or, as the case may be, procure the holding of the National Lottery.

(7) A licence shall be in writing and shall be expressed to authorise a company, being the licensee or a subsidiary of the licensee or, in a case where the licensee is not a company, a company which, if the licensee were a company, would be a subsidiary of the licensee, to hold the National Lottery on behalf of the Minister.

4 Prizes in National Lottery.

4.—(1) The number, form (whether sums of money or otherwise) and value of the prizes to be distributed in the National Lottery shall, subject to subsection (2) of this section, be determined by the Company.

(2) The total value of the prizes distributed in the National Lottery in any financial year of the Company shall, taking one year with another, be equal to not less than 40 per cent. of the total moneys received by the Company in that year in respect of the sale of National Lottery tickets in that year.

5 Application of net proceeds of National Lottery.

5.—(1) Moneys paid into the Central Fund pursuant to section 8 of this Act shall be applied for—

(a) the purposes of such one or more of the following, and in such amounts, as the Government may determine from time to time, that is to say, sport and other recreation, national culture (including the Irish language), the arts (within the meaning of the Arts Act, 1951) and the health of the community, and

(b) such (if any) other purposes, and in such amounts, as the Government may determine from time to time.

(2) Whenever a purpose is determined under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, notice of the purpose shall be published in Iris Oifigiúil.

(3) Amounts required for a purpose determined under this section shall be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

6 Independent scrutiny of National Lottery held by Company.

6.—(1) Whenever the National Lottery is held by the Company, the Minister may from time to time appoint one or more persons whose functions shall be to examine the conduct generally of the National Lottery and to report thereon to the Minister, and for those purposes, but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, to investigate—

(a) its organisation, management and procedures,

(b) the system for selecting winning tickets and the methods employed to prevent fraud in, or the manipulation of, that system and to ensure its fairness, accuracy, efficiency and reliability,

(c) the manner of the selection, organisation and supervision of staff of the Company engaged in—

(i) the handling or processing of National Lottery tickets or numbers for National Lottery tickets and the selection of National Lottery tickets to be winning tickets, and

(ii) the installation, operation, maintenance, repair or supervision of computers or other electronic devices, or devices of any kind, used for the purposes of the National Lottery,

(d) the installation, operation, maintenance, repair and supervision of computers or other electronic devices, or devices of any kind, used for the purposes of the National Lottery,

(e) the operation of this Act and any regulations thereunder in relation to the National Lottery and whether the provisions of this Act and any such regulations are being complied with in relation thereto.

(2) A person appointed under this section shall report to the Minister—

(a) at such intervals (not being intervals of more than one year) as he thinks desirable in relation to the matters specified in subsection (1) of this section, and

(b) from time to time in relation to any other matters as respects the National Lottery which he considers should be so reported or which are specified by the Minister.

(3) For the purposes of his functions under this Act, a person appointed under this section may enter and remain on the premises of the Company at all reasonable times and shall have access to and may inspect any National Lottery tickets or any records kept by the Company (whether in legible form or otherwise) relating to the National Lottery and may take copies of or of extracts from the records.

(4) Every director of the Company, and every employee of the Company who is concerned in the National Lottery, shall give to a person appointed under this section such information in his possession relating to the National Lottery as may be requested by that person.

(5) A person appointed under this section may, if he so thinks fit, make recommendations to the Minister in relation to the National Lottery or its conduct (including a recommendation that the Minister should appoint a manager in relation to the Company under section 30, or should give a direction to the Company in relation to a specified matter, under section 29 of this Act).

(6) The remuneration and any expenses payable to a person appointed by the Minister under this section shall be paid by the Minister out of the Fund.

(7) A person who fails or refuses to comply with a request duly made under subsection (4) of this section in relation to information in his possession or who obstructs or hinders a person appointed under subsection (1) of this section in the performance of his functions under this section, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000.

7 Sale of National Lottery tickets.

7.—(1) (a) The Company may authorise such persons as it may determine to sell National Lottery tickets.

(b) The total number of persons who may be authorised under this subsection to sell National Lottery tickets shall be determined by the Company with the consent of the Minister.

(2) An authorisation under this section shall be in writing and shall be subject to such terms and conditions (including terms and conditions relating to the remuneration of persons by the Company in respect of the sale by them of National Lottery tickets and the time, form and method of such remuneration) as may be determined by the Company with the consent of the Minister and specified in the authorisation.

(3) A person (other than the Company) shall not sell, offer or expose for sale or invite an offer to buy or have in his possession for sale a National Lottery ticket unless he is the holder of an authorisation under this section entitling him to do so.

(4) A person shall not sell or offer for sale a National Lottery ticket to a person under the age of eighteen years or invite from such a person an offer to buy a National Lottery ticket.

(5) The form and price of a National Lottery ticket shall be determined by the Company.

(6) (a) The Company shall not give, distribute or sell to any person (other than holders of authorisations under this section) National Lottery tickets free of charge or at a price less than that at which they are sold to members of the public generally.

(b) This subsection does not apply to National Lottery tickets awarded as prizes in the National Lottery.

(7) (a) None of the following persons shall be entitled to own a National Lottery ticket that has been purchased for value or awarded as a prize in the National Lottery or any part of such a ticket:

(i) the Company or a director, agent or employee of the Company,

(ii) a person who prints National Lottery tickets or an employee of his or, if the person is a company, a director of the company,

(iii) a person who supplies any computers or other electronic devices of any kind, or parts for, or equipment or computer programming or instructions for use in or in conjunction with, any such devices used by the Company or a person who operates, maintains or repairs any such devices used by the Company or an employee of any of the persons aforesaid or, in the case of a person aforesaid that is a company, a director of the company.

(b) If a person specified in paragraph (a) of this subsection becomes the owner of the whole or part of a National Lottery ticket—

(i) he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(I) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,000, or

(II) on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £20,000,

(ii) the National Lottery ticket shall not be entered in the National Lottery and, if it is so entered, the owner or owners thereof shall not be entitled to be awarded any prize in the National Lottery in respect of the ticket, and

(iii) if a prize is awarded in the National Lottery to the owner or owners of the ticket, the prize shall be returned, not later than one month after its receipt, to the Company and, if it is not so returned, it or an amount equal to its value may be recovered by the Company from the owner or, jointly and severally, from the owners of the ticket as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(c) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to show that the National Lottery ticket concerned was purchased for him without his knowledge or consent by another person and (in the case of a person other than the Company) that, as soon as reasonably possible after becoming aware of the purchase, he informed the Company of the purchase and of the fact that he was not entitled to be the owner of the ticket.

8 National Lottery Fund.

8.—(1) The Minister shall cause to be established in the Central Bank of Ireland a fund which shall be known as the National Lottery Fund and is referred to in this Act as “the Fund”.

(2) (a) The Fund shall be managed and controlled by the Minister and shall consist of a current account and an investment account.

(b) Moneys payable into the Fund shall be paid into the current account of the Fund and moneys payable out of the Fund shall be paid out of that account.

(c) Moneys standing to the credit of the current account and not required to meet current liabilities of the Fund shall be paid into the investment account of the Fund.

(d) Whenever the moneys in the current account of the Fund are insufficient to meet current liabilities of that account, there shall be paid into that account from the investment account of the Fund such moneys as are necessary to meet those liabilities.

(e) (i) The proceeds of the sale of National Lottery tickets, after deduction therefrom of any remuneration paid to sellers of National Lottery tickets and such amounts, if any, in respect of prizes in the National Lottery as the Minister may authorise, shall be paid into the Fund.

(ii) Payments of remuneration under section 9 of this Act, and amounts in respect of prizes for winning tickets (other than amounts referred to in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph), shall be made out of the current account of the Fund.

(f) (i) Subject to subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph, moneys in the investment account of the Fund that are not required to meet current and prospective liabilities of that account shall be invested and the investments shall be realised or varied from time to time as occasion requires and the proceeds of any such realisation, and any dividends or other payments received in respect of moneys invested under this paragraph, shall be paid into the investment account of the Fund or invested under this paragraph.

(ii) An investment under this paragraph shall be in securities in which trustees are for the time being authorised by law to invest trust funds or in any of the stocks, funds or securities in which moneys of the Post Office Saving Bank are for the time being authorised to be invested.

(iii) (I) At such intervals as the Minister may determine, but not being intervals of more than one year, the Minister shall cause to be remitted from the investment account of the Fund to the Central Fund any surplus moneys in that account after appropriate provision has been made in relation to any current liabilities of the Fund and any prospective or contingent liabilities of the Fund and any prospective or contingent liabilities thereof for which, in the opinion of the Minister, provision should be made out of moneys then in the Fund.

(II) Moneys remitted to the Central Fund under this paragraph shall form part of the Central Fund.

(iv) Payments into and out of the Fund shall be made in accordance with any regulations in relation thereto under section 34 of this Act.

(3) The accounts of the Fund shall be submitted annually to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit and the Minister shall cause a copy of an abstract of the accounts as so audited together with a copy of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General thereon to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

9 Remuneration of licensee.

9.—(1) A licensee shall be paid by the Minister out of the Fund at such time or times as the Minister may determine after consultation with the licensee and, if the Company is not the licensee, the Company, such remuneration (including such amounts in respect of such expenses and outgoings of the licensee or, if the Company is not the licensee, of the Company and the licensee as the Minister may determine as aforesaid) calculated in such manner and by reference to such matters as the Minister may determine as aforesaid in respect of the holding of the National Lottery pursuant to the licence of the licensee.

(2) If, upon the revocation of a licence, any remuneration is due to the licensee in respect of the period before the revocation, the amount of the remuneration so due shall, notwithstanding the revocation, be paid to the licensee.

10 The Company.

10.—(1) A licence shall authorise a company, and only a company, to hold the National Lottery, and a company standing so authorised for the time being is referred to in this Act as “the Company”.

(2) The sole objects of the Company shall be the holding of the National Lottery pursuant to a licence under this Act and the doing of all such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the first-mentioned object.

11 Memorandum of association of Company.

11.—The memorandum of association of the Company, shall be in such form consistent with this Act as shall be approved of by the Minister.

12 Articles of association of Company.

12.—(1) The articles of association of the Company shall be in such form consistent with this Act as shall be approved of by the Minister and, if and in so far as they relate to the remuneration (including superannuation) of the directors, officers and other staff of the Company, the Minister for the Public Service.

(2) The articles of association of the Company shall provide that the qualification for being a director of the Company shall be the holding of at least one share in the Company.

13 Alteration of memorandum and articles of association of Company.

13.—Notwithstanding anything contained in the Companies Acts, 1963 to 1985, no alteration in the memorandum of association or articles of association of the Company shall be valid or effectual unless made with the previous approval of the Minister.

14 Directors of Company.

14.—(1) The number of the directors of the Company shall be seven including the chairman.

(2) The directors of the Company shall be appointed by the Minister.