The operators, who come under the umbrella of the Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA) and Concerned Lotto Agents Association of Ghana (CLAAG), is of the view that this would help end an impasse between them and the National Lottery Authority (NLA).

Mr Kwaku Duah, Executive Secretary of CLAAG, who read a communique on behalf of the group, after a meeting in Kumasi, said the actions of the NLA, were creating a bad image for the government and it is time government intervened.

The meeting was to brief private lotto operators and agents in the Ashanti Region on the current developments in the private lotto business and seek their views on the way forward.

Mr Duah, said the NLA after collecting huge sums of money from private operators and agents to register and grant them licenses to use its numbers for the "Banker-to-Banker" Lotto operations, was trying to turn its back on the agreement.

NLA has also refused to refund the monies collected from members of the association.

Mr Duah said what the members were agitating for was a license for them to operate as independent business people and called for an amendment of the national Lottery Act to make the NLA a regulator and not a competitor in the lotto business.

He said private lotto operations directly employed more than one million people in the country and any attempt to cripple that business would be very disastrous for the government.

Mr Ato Conduah, a private legal practitioner working for the operators, said NLA was not being truthful with its dealings with the private sector operators.

He said the attempt by the management of NLA to get rid of the operators and agents and use their employees to retail for the NLA, would not work.

Mr Conduah said the government has a responsibility to come out with a clear policy direction to ensure that private lotto operators worked in a peaceful environment and pay taxes to the government for national development.