Could you briefly tell us what have been the highlights of the National Lottery since its creation and what have been the major changes since the Revolution in 1989?
We can say that the activity of the State Lottery in Romania lasts for almost one hundred years. It is true that the lottery in Romania has been going on for more than one hundred years when these activities with local character started. The main purpose was to collect money from the population and to assure some prizes for the participants. The net profits collected were destined for some deficitary activities and humanitarian purposes. Then, around the year 1906, the Government and the Romanian Parliament decided to establish a State Lottery that would develop its activity on the entire territory of Romania.
The State Lottery in Romania had to endure a long period of more than forty years under the communism regime. During this period it functioned as an unique organization. The only thing we regret from that period is the limited earnings fund that was insured for the participants, which was around 30-35% of the incomes. Then 1989 arrived. The former state enterprise Loto-Pronosport has been organized as an Autonomous Administration, with larger competencies insured by the Administration Board. It also aligned with European and international lottery mechanisms and models such as the International Association of State Lotteries, Inter-toto and the European Association of State Lotteries (now there are only two because the International Association of State Lotteries and Inter-toto merged last year).
Starting with 1993, when I became the manager of this company, the Lottery has activated intensely within these organizations and did not miss any of the European conferences or congresses. This has been very helpful for us because we had the opportunity to see what is going on around the world in the lucky games field. Last year, 1999, the former Autonomy Administration was transformed into a National Company.
What does it exactly mean?
Being transformed into a National Company, the whole capital is divided by shares. For the moment, the only shareholder is the Romanian State. The general assembly that rules the company has got larger competencies, especially regarding the fields of activity. What I mean is that the Romanian Lottery has a very good infrastructure consisting of more than 1,800 agencies - our own property - and this obliges us to consider every territorial agency as a profit center. We want each of these profit centers to have the best possible results. For that reason we want optimize the booths by developing there other activities. For instance, we have already started to sell mobile phone card such as Connex and Dialog in our agencies.
Coming back to our collaboration with the European and international lottery organizations, I have to say that it has materialized through the Conference of Central and Eastern European Countries that took place on September 15th 1998 in Bucharest. This conference enjoyed a big success. The participation was so large that plenty of institutions from other continents were also present, even though it was only a Central and Eastern European Conference.
What kind of interest do these companies or institutions or lotteries from other continents have in the Eastern and Central European lotteries?
The interest is mostly shown by suppliers of lottery products and equipment. Since in the Eastern European market there is a need of new things, the big producers of lottery effects and lottery equipment are very interested to also penetrate these markets.
Regarding our collaboration with the Lottery European Organizations I have to say that by chance our interview of today takes place before a very important moment of the European Association of the State Lotteries. We are talking about the reunion of the Executive Committee of the European Association of State Lotteries that is going to take place between the 13th and the 15th of April 2000 in Bucharest. The whole Executive Committee formed by eleven members plus the General Secretary is going to be present in Bucharest. It is a working meeting of the Committee, but for Romania it is an incredible thing, especially for the State Lottery because 99% of the members of the Executive Committee have never been to Romania. This is not only an occasion but also an appreciation of the fact that the State Lottery of Romania has accomplished a good statute within the Organism. | Could you give us some figures about your institution?
We have 1,800 agencies of our own property, although we develop our activities in 2,500 agencies - from different other owners. We have 7,000 employees and several thousand collaborators. The turnover for 1999 was more than 1,300 billion lei. The net profit was 229 billion lei. In the State Lotteries list done by these international organizations we are somewhere in an inferior region because we are still a small country. In 1993, in Europe, we were placed the ones before last. Today we are in the middle position. In Eastern Europe we are situated on the fourth place after Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. We could have been higher on this list if the Romanian market would not have been excessively liberalized. However I think this is something the Romanian Government is going to solve in the next few years because we have taken into consideration the recommendations and advises we received from the European and International Lottery Organisms and handed their ideas to the representatives of the Romanian Government. The fact is that the majority of Governments in countries around the world do not let these activities get away from their hands.
Are there any private lotteries in Romania?
Yes and even in excess. Basically in this moment the State Lottery is in a state of competition. According to the recommendations and models of western countries regarding games of luck there should not be any competition in this field. Of course competition is good from the point of view of the quality of products, but if there is too much competition, the collection of earnings and prizes will not reach high levels. The interest of each state is to collect from the population as much as is available. It has to be taken into consideration an important condition: to respect that the game requires the prices to get back to the participants. If you promise to offer prizes of 50-60% you have to respect this promise. Besides there is the Adhesion Treaty of Romania to the European Union, Romania has engaged not to excessively liberalize the games of chance. The Western World countries know very well that on a poor population you cannot come up with an aggressive advertisement of lucky games because the population rely too much on luck to come out of their misery.
Many of these National Lotteries also play an important social role because they invest in social programs and housing. Is the National Lottery of Romania also involved in any project of this kind?
Yes. Through the years the lottery has respected this social attribute getting involved in this kind of actions. It has collected money for the construction of hospitals, cultural activities and not least, for the sponsorship of sports. A great example is the Romanian Athenaeum for which the lottery has collected a lot of money. In the past few years the Lottery has sponsored a lot of hospitals, churches and especially sports. The Lottery has collected money and helped the population that was seriously affected by the floods. Among its history the lottery got very seriously involved three times in large floods: in 1927, in 1970 and in 1999. In all three situations the Lottery edited lottery notes especially for these floods. It gave away the prizes, and the remaining funds were distributed to the population as help.
How many types of games do you have?
The range is very wide. As far as lotto games are regarded we have: 6/49; 5/40; 5/55 - Express - and Noroc. In the bets field we organize bets for football games under the name of Pronosport, as well as bets for the horse races. There is one bet for horse races in Romania (not too developed because there is not a well performing hippodrome), and we also have bets on two races in France that we can see on TV. We collaborate with PMU from France. We also have instant lottery effects - any kind of scratch - and an instant product called "lotto in an envelope" which is produced by us here in Romania.
Do you have a final message you would like to transmit to our readers?
Throughout all these years, besides the diversification of its products, the State Lottery, has also worked very much in their quality. In the chance game field, quality not only refers about the design of the note and of the way it is written, or even to the number of prizes. From my point of view quality also refers to the management of the product. If the management of the product is not well done there is room for any kind of tricks. The State Lottery in Romania guarantees a perfect management of lottery products. This is justified by the fact that the entire management is done by a system totally computerized. |
LOTERIA ROMANA