ITHUBA, the new Lotto operator, is plagued with teething problems that are probably exacerbated by a court case hanging over it thanks to its predecessor, Gidani. However, Charmaine Mabuza, the head of Ithuba, is not deterred. "These things happen . tenders are challenged every day, there are court processes, but that doesn't mean you have to stop doing business," she said.Gidani, the former operator of the lottery, has challenged the award of the new national lottery licence to Ithuba.This had created "a whole lot of confusion" among Lotto players, Mabuza said. For example, there are two lottery terminals at retailers or places where people can play Lotto - one controlled by Ithuba, the other by Gidani.story_article_left1It is not the first time lottery operators have approached the courts to fight for the licence. In 2007, Uthingo challenged the tender award to Gidani by the then trade and industry minister, Mandisi Mpahlwa. The battle put Lotto on hold for six months.This time, the handover from Gidani to Ithuba was done overnight. Ithuba had to hastily roll out its lottery terminals throughout South Africa as well as sign up retailers who had no contracts with Ithuba.Mabuza described the switchover as "immense".Ithuba has spent more than R550-million on operations and infrastructure to ensure the lottery is running while it awaits judgment in the licence squabble.Mabuza said that by month-end, the company would have rolled out up to 9 000 terminals - it has installed about 7 800 so far.For the moment, Mabuza said, Ithuba was the licence holder, so it had to continue the service.The group has linked FNB to its technology and is in the final testing phases of the system. Since Ithuba took over from Gidani this month, FNB customers used to playing on online banking platforms have been unable to.This system will not be exclusive to FNB customers, however, as under Ithuba, other banks that apply to the lottery operator will be able to link their customers to Lotto through their digital banking platforms.Ithuba planned to make Lotto an "aspirational brand", Mabuza said. She wants people to give lottery tickets as Christmas presents and Lotto should not be seen "as something that should be frowned upon". She and her team will introduce new games to increase the pool of players."What we recognised is that our customers, which are in LSMs (living standards measures) 1 to 5, are slowly decreasing. And we need to be able to change the demographics," Mabuza said...