SUPREME Ventures, operators of the Lucky 5 and Cash Pot games, yesterday reported that they had grown the local lottery market by almost 64 per cent in 10 months and said they were satisfied that they had delivered on promises made to the government when they applied for a licence.

“Between 1993 and 2000, in substantiating our licence request to the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission, we had to show that the company would be able to expand the gaming market so as not to cannibalise the existing lottery tax revenues to the government, create new jobs and bring investment dollars and technology into the country,” Peter Stewart, Supreme Ventures’ chairman, told journalists at a first anniversary news briefing at the Terra Nova Hotel.

“We have… delivered all that was promised to the minister of finance,” added Stewart’s partner, Paul Hoo, who gave details of the firm’s performance.

Said Hoo, the company’s president: “Supreme Ventures Limited has effectively grown the lottery market in Jamaica from an estimated $3.5 billion in 2000, to approximately $9 billion in 10 months of operations.”

That growth, Hoo projected, would climb to $12 billion for this calendar year when Supreme Ventures introduces a third game next month as part of their first anniversary celebrations.

The game, known as Keno, is covered under the 10-year licence Supreme Ventures acquired from the Government in January 2001.

“Cash Pot and Lucky 5 gross sales for the fiscal year-to-date to May 15, 2002, is $6.8 billion,” Hoo said, adding that the company recorded its highest monthly gross sales of $975.5 million in March this year.

According to Hoo, his firm has paid out more than $4.7 billion to over 742,816 Cash Pot and Lucky 5 winners for the year so far and has contributed more than $300 million during the fiscal year to the health and education sectors via the government’s Good Cause Tax.

The portion of the money that goes to the Ministry of Health, Hoo said, will be used to upgrade hospitals, buy equipment and provide training.

A total of $100 million, he said, will be used by the education ministry to refurbish 30 basic schools across the island, refurbish 30 infant schools during the upcoming summer holidays and provide scholarships for teachers at the pre-primary level who are assigned to basic and infant schools.

Overall, he said, Supreme Ventures have paid a total of $691.3 million in fees and taxes since June 25, 2001 when the company started operations, to March this year.

Hoo also told the news conference that 28 jobs have been created by his firm, 50 by GTECH Corporation, Supreme Ventures’ technology service provider, while approximately 1,500 jobs were created at ticket outlets across Jamaica.

Added Hoo: “Over J$1/2 billion was invested in a state-of-the-art lottery technology system which was brought into Jamaica. This system includes a wireless communication network, specialised point of sale terminals and a central data centre.”

The company’s agent network, he said, had grown to more than 650 and with 2,000 applications now before them from persons interested in becoming retail agents, they have had to put a hold on new requests in order to clear the backlog.

Hoo said that although they were proud of their achievements, they still had “a far way to go”.

The company, he said, hopes to have up to 750 terminals operating by June 25 this year and 850 by September. He also said that they will be pursuing other non-gaming related businesses using the existing technology, which would be announced by the end of this year.