State real winner of lottery game sales in Turkey

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The government earned 432.7 million liras from the turnover of the National Lottery Administration. DHA photo

The government became the real jackpot winner last year, by earning the lion’s share of the 2.2 billion Turkish Lira turnover raised by lottery games sales.

As the National Lottery Administration raised its turnover by 10 percent in 2012 to 2,215 billion liras, the amount allocated for the public institutions soared. The cash that flowed to the state’s coffers rose by 11 percent last year and reached 432.7 million liras.

The amount given to Treasury cannot be known specifically as it’s listed among contributions from other taxes including value-added tax (VAT), but the total contribution rose by 10 percent.

The amount fell to fortunate lottery winners’ share also surged last year, as the amount of premium the administration paid surpassed 1 billion liras.

The National Lottery made players raise 899 million liras through 2011, but raised it to 1.8 billion liras in 2012.

The Privatization Authority is currently working on possible schemes to privatize the National Lottery, which have already begun to draw interest from several local and foreign companies.