Ekpe, however, said that sports betting would become gambling if it was not properly regulated. “Sport betting is an aspect of lottery. If you listen to what I read about the act here, it says the results of a sports event. “Now, when there is a prize based on an outcome of a sports event and somebody is running a scheme on that, telling you that if you do this – based on this result – if you can predict this right, you stand a chance of winning, the person has used sports to come up with a lottery scheme. “So, it is a legitimate scheme. “But the point there is, when you do not regulate sports scheme in a transparent way that is where the gambling aspect comes in. “When you regulate it in a transparent way, you now know that whatever the person is betting on some amount is coming to government. “Now, when the person wins, the person is entitled to what the person wins. “We now decided to set up a framework to regulate sports bet and that is why we have what we call rules guiding sports lottery in Nigeria which we have developed. “We have given notice to all those who have been carrying out these activities that please come and regularise and subject yourself to regulations, so that you will do it in a transparent way and be accountable to the country. “That is what we are working on now. We have identified them, some of them have even applied.’’ The director-general also said that the commission had created an in-house platform called the `National Lottery Regulatory Commission STRAMAP –SMS Transaction Monitoring and Archival Platform’, to be used to monitor the activities of lottery operators. “It is to monitor what these people are doing, so we will be able to know exactly what is due to government.’’ He further said the commission was also working closely with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to ensure total compliance with the rules and regulations of lottery. He added that the stipulated age for anyone interested in playing lottery was 18 years and above.]]>