Lawmakers in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies have voted overwhelmingly to merge the country’s two lotteries, La Lotería Nacional para la Asistencia Pública (Lotenal) and Pronósticos para la Asistencia Pública (Pronósticos), creating one of the largest lotteries in the region.
The plan was first announced in July by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The sales for Pronósticos are higher and its sales network more advanced than Lotenal, sales for which have been in decline for more than 10 years. The merger is aimed at reversing Lotenal’s deficit, which was generated from 2008, when a special excise tax on production and services was imposed on the lottery. The tax is imposed on products that are deemed harmful to people or the environment such as soft drinks, cigarettes, alcohol and petroleum.
In 2015 Mexico’s Chief Audit Office said Lotenal 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. Auditors advised the executive branch to dissolve the lottery, but the government chose to merge the entities, which will be folded under the National Lottery umbrella.
