The 64-year-old Bormla resident who won the government’s VAT fiscal receipts lottery 13 times in less than 18 months was not the only participant with astonishingly good luck.
Further research by The Shift has uncovered another 23 lucky individuals who had their tickets drawn multiple times since January 2021, despite competing with millions of other participating receipts.
While the Bormla resident of Triq il-Polverista took home some €9,000 from her 13 wins, a 41-year-old man from Siggiewi with ID number 239881M walked away with a total of €18,584 after just four wins.
A 71-year-old from Naxxar was almost as lucky, winning 11 times in the same period.
The Shift analysed more than a year’s worth of lottery results, comparing the number of times the same ID Card holders were declared winners by the VAT Department in the monthly draws since January 2021.
A total of 24 people were declared winners multiple times in less than a year and a half.
Lottery experts told The Shift last week that it is close to “mathematically impossible” for the same participant to have his or her tickets extracted more than once in the same draw, which has a pool of some 3 million fiscal receipts.
Sources said, “it is not excluded that some participants are posting thousands of receipts, making the possibility of winning much bigger than others”.
The Shift is informed that some parishes collect VAT receipts from churchgoers for the priest to have some extra cash to administer his parish in case of a win. Yet this is the exception, as the list of multiple repeat winners shows.
The National Audit Office called for a revamp of the lottery in 2018 after discovering multiple shortcomings in its administration, but nothing has been done.
The system was introduced in the 1990s by then Finance Minister John Dalli as part of an effort to reduce rampant VAT evasion. Customers were encouraged to send their collected fiscal receipts to the VAT department to participate in a monthly draw.
Several receipts were drawn each month during a televised event, with winners receiving 100 times the value of their tickets in cash. Tickets continue to be drawn until a €60,000 monthly cap is reached.
There have been several cases of abuse connected to the lottery over the years, with VAT department officials accused in court of tampering with the draw.
The televised draw was stopped when the Labour Party was elected to government, leading to increasing suspicions of fraud.
Transparency was blown up immediately. It was a prelude of things that came.
Imbasta kien qed ifahhar lil Pulizija u lil Gvern ghaż-żamma tal ordni pubblika fil pajjiż l-Arcisqof dalghodu.
JD was behind it and that’s all we need to know?
Min ilu snien shah jittanta l-fortuna kull xahar ghal xejn – u min, imbierka l-providenza, jdabbar kemxa gmielha kull ftit xhur.
Min hu mejjet ghal qatra u min hu altru li mejjet fis-sakra!
Kulhadd skond xortih? Hekk jghidu, hux!
Now someone should take those 24 people and find out who they are commonly related to?
One of the cases in question is of a parish priest.
so what?
Ara vera qas tilhqu taraw xi haga relatata mal knisja li l attenzjoni kollha ma tmurx fuq hekk. Minn 24 kaz, il wiehed relatat ma qassis rajt? X antipatija
Rajna l-Kazi kollha u mhux ta dak relatat mal-Knisja biss. Il-Knisja u l-Membri Kattolici tagha huma ukoll esposti ghal korruzzjoni meta dan jgi pruvat kif gie pruvat f’dan il-kaz.
serq, serq, serq u serq. Mafia Malta – ma tista’ tafda l-hadd – u zqur li jirbah il-muvument korrott jekk nofs Malta hi korrotta – grazzi ghall-ezempju tal-akbar pm korrott li qatt rat Malta.
I sense the government bringing GDPR to the rescue
Kudos for your follow-up on the scope of this racket. The cops, of course, will continue looking away in keeping with their motto PL Dirige Nos.
Kull oggett li mieghu ghandu x’jaqsam il Gvern riha ta’ Hara.
The very best comment I’ve read.
Din mhix biss matematikament impossibbli għal persuna waħda, imma hija matematikament kriminali li qed tiġri għal 24 persuna. Il-pulizija trid tarresta issa. Lanqas b’fail fil-computer ma jiġru dawn l-affarijiet u għandha titqies bħala bażi għal azzjoni kriminali.
Corruption is everywhere and rooted at all levels. A strong legacy of the PL.
In mu book of statistics, section Probabilty, a sub-heading went like this: Once is happenstance, twice a coincidence, the third call the police
The list of multiple winner will most likely double, if investigations went further back. Starting from the time it was stopped from being a televised draw. It would also be interesting to see if and how many we had multiple draw winners during the time it was televised.
This is corruption and the police need to investigate. Other participants are being robbed of the chance of winning in this fiscal receipts lottery. We cannot allow these things to happen. Bring the culprits to face the consequences of their wrong doing.
Corruption galore under Labour.
Too many coincidences if you ask me!
Isa hej issa rrid lura l ispejjes tal bolol u l envelops li hallast ghalxejn.. 😅 u jien nitlob kull xahar forsi imqar nerbah €1000!! 🤔 Kemm hi kerha u ngusta l- korruzzjoni!!
TRUST HAS BEEN COMPLETELY ERODED. WHAT NEXT THE
NATIONAL LOTTERY?
Are these people going to be brought to justice and will they’ve refunding the money back? We need answers.. are the people involved still employed and are there names going to be published…. This country has lost its values…