WINNING TICKET - Third lottery licence issued to Mahoe Gaming as court fight with BGLC continues
Published:Monday | July 27, 2020 | 12:00 AMRomario Scott/Gleaner Writer
In a major development in the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, the board of commissioners of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) has approved the granting of a licence to newcomer Mahoe Gaming Enterprises Limited.
Executive director of the BGLC, Vitus Evans, confirmed to The Gleaner that the approval took place during a meeting of the board of commissioners last Friday.
The move by the BGLC means that Mahoe will be the third entity in Jamaica to be granted a licence to operate a lottery in the island.
This after a Court of Appeal judge denied Prime Sports’ application for an injunction restraining the BGLC from granting a lottery licence to Mahoe Gaming until an appeal for a Supreme Court decision in favour of the BGLC is heard.
Prime Sports is a subsidiary of Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL), which has one of the two other licences.
Mahoe Gaming, The Gleaner understands, has been one of several entities interested in obtaining a lottery licence. The BGLC began reviewing its application in July 2019. Mahoe’s directors and shareholders include Paul B. Scott, Michelle Myers Mayne, and Lise-Ann Hoo-Harris.
Hoo-Harris is the daughter of former chairman of SVL, Paul Hoo.
“In order to commence operations, the licensee must now fulfil financial and technical requirements,” Evans said.
The BGLC has been in a fierce fight with Supreme Ventures over the granting of the licence and has been in court over the issue.
Prime Sports had asked the Supreme Court for an injunction restraining the BGLC from granting, issuing, considering, or continuing consideration of the grant of a lottery licence to Mahoe Gaming.
Prime Sports wanted the court to order that no licence be granted unless a feasibility study be conducted on lottery operations in the country.
It was also seeking an order prohibiting lottery licences for the same types of games offered by SVL.
But the court rejected the application and ruled that the BGLC had acted within the law in considering the application.
Justice Evan Brown found that the law governing the BGLC and lotteries in the country did not require the commission to consult with existing lottery licensees or conduct market investigations or surveys before it decides to grant or refuse to grant a licence.
On June 13, Prime Sports filed an application to appeal Brown’s ruling and for an injunction preventing the commission from going ahead with licence issuance to Mahoe Gaming.
Justice Harris denied that application, but a date has not yet been set for the hearing of the appeal on the substance of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“The commission is a creature of statute, so all that it does is governed by the provision of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act. As such, it is open to any licensee or potential licensee to challenge any action or decision of the commission,” Evans stated.
“The hearing was for an application for leave to proceed to judicial review by a licensee of a position taken by the commission. The court has now given its ruling on the matter, and we accept the court’s ruling.”
In May, the licensing application process used by the BGLC was called into question, with accusations of a conflict of interest levelled at Evans.
However, an independent review conducted by Dr Derrick McKoy, an attorney-at-law and former commissioner of the Integrity Commission, found that there was no conflict of interest between any member of the management and the board of commissioners.
Before his appointment to the BGLC in 2017, Evans acted as a consultant to Supreme Ventures, which was then chaired by Hoo.
Efforts by The Gleaner on Sunday to contact Gary Peart, chairman of SVL, were unsuccessful.
None of the principals of Mahoe Gaming could be reached for comment either.