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Mexico – Mexican President hands National Lottery a mandate to change

By - 21 January 2019

The newly elected President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador has entrusted the National Lottery with joining the government’s new austerity policy, while urging the body to restore transparency and efficiency in the institution.

At a press conference and speaking on behalf of Director General of La Lotería Nacional para la Asistencia Pública (LOTENAL), coordinator of advisors Francisco Javier Ramírez Jaramillo said that “it was time for this noble institution to grow once more” and added that the lottery had been handed a mandate by the President to change.

“We have been entrusted by the president of the Republic Andrés Manuel López Obrador to rescue the basic principles of LOTENAL, such as: integrity, transparency, efficiency and austerity,” he said.

The official also admitted that trust in institutions must be restored. “It is very important that society returns to trust institutions such as the National Lottery, which has benefited Mexican society through resources allocated in infrastructure for education and health.”

LOTENAL has been present in the market for over almost 250 years. However sales for LOTENAL have been in decline. In 2015 Mexico’s Chief Audit Office confirmed that LOTENAL was in a state of growing crisis, since the lottery had stopped making donations to public charities and was dependent on government money so that it could remain afloat and even pay out prizes in some cases. However the lottery has seen a marked improvement in recent years. In January 2018 it was announced that LOTENAL had recorded sales of $5,466m (around US$283m) in 2017, driven largely by the introduction of new sales channels according to the Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP). The annual amount was higher by $26m (US$1.3m) compared to 2016, according to the SHCP in its latest report. Sales via electronic means exceeded $464m (US$24m) in 2017 according to the report.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1 after winning a landslide election victory, has made a number of cuts to ministries’ budgets in order to allow extra cash for welfare and infrastructure.

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