Seven-year licence for lotto consortium

The consortium Maltco, whose majority shareholder is the Greek Intralot SA, will on Monday be given a seven-year operating licence by the Lotto Department.

The Lotto Receivers' Union has reached an agreement with Maltco on a contract which has to be signed individually by each of the 190 receivers.

All receivers were given a draft of the agreement. Negotiations have been going on for two years.

The union said the future of receivers' work depended a lot on future relations between it and Maltco.

It was in the interest of both parties that these relations remained strong. This should be facilitated by the fact that receivers were not paid a fixed salary but received a commission based on sales, the union said.

Arthur Rossi, the union's president, said the granting of the licence to Maltco would not mean substantive changes for receivers. Instead of being given appointments by the department, they would operate under a licence.