New Global Lottery Operates From Antigua

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Business News

Friday, 16 November 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John's - The BiLLe Lotto’; that’s the name of the newest online lottery service coming out of Antigua & Barbuda and available to the world.

The only catch is it’s not available to Antigua or any other Caricom nation due to strict laws against lottery competition in the sub-region.

Nonetheless, investors from Europe and North America have chosen this twin-island state to set up shop and have been operating since July with notable success so far.

On Thursday the company opened its operations to Caribarena with an inside look at how the lottery outfit which employs a significant portion of its workforce from Antigua has the world on its toes.

The operation is an online service with a player-directed charitable pool, a maximum primary jackpot of 1 billion euros and 42 secondary jackpots of up to 10 million euros a week. And it only costs 7 euros for a ticket.

The charitable aspect of the initiative is where Antigua benefits, and Cathleen McIntosh explains just how this really works. In the meantime, however, she told this publication that tickets for the lottery are sold online at www.thebille.com. It boasts the best odds of winning any prize with a 1 in 1.8 percentile; a no-shared prize clause; a player directed charitable donations feature; and the option to play as a team both online and offline.

The company is registered and operated entirely out of Antigua & Barbuda, and is considered among “the world’s most generous referral programs.” As McIntosh explained, “The referral program applies to 6-ball and 7-ball winners. As a referrer, if a player wins, the referral party automatically wins a prize of 10,000 euros for 6-ball winners and a maximum of 10 million euros for a 7-ball winner.”

Drawings take place every Thursday and there have been no winners since the inception. Each drawing takes place in-house and under the scrutiny of a KPMG finance official. The machine and its operators are internationally certified and recognized, and the equipment, including the balls, are stored under the toughest of security.

Where Antigua benefits in all of this, outside of the direct employment, is through a charity pool component of the operations that features a 10 percent of overall sales. “One third of this 10 percent charity pool goes to The BiLLe Fund to support programs right here in Antigua & Barbuda. The other two-thirds of the pool goes to world-wide charities,” McIntosh explained.

“This is one of the most exciting features for myself,” she said.
The company has been existence, considering building and actual operations, for approximately two years and discussions are said to be underway with the Financial Services Regulatory Commission to see exactly how the program could contribute more directly and tangibly to the local economy.
Caribarena asked the “obvious” question of “why Antigua & Barbuda?”, and the company’s management pointed out quite simply that it was the “strict regulations” in the country’s financial services sector that did the trick. These regulations, according to them, have not only “white-listed” their operations, but contributed significantly to boosting the credibility of the procedures.

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