A proposal for a Caribbean powerball lottery that would pump more than US$10 million into West Indies cricket annually is being finalised and could be placed before Caricom heads at their next summit in July for approval.

“Where we are at now is to deliver the technical papers,” Brian George, president and CEO of Supreme Ventures Ltd, told the Observer. “There is a very strong interest at the level of the West Indies Cricket Board.”

According to George, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has been providing updates on the proposal to Caricom leaders who, the Observer has learnt, are supportive of the plan, given its potential to help the region fund the staging of the 2007 World Cup of Cricket.

The Observer was unable to get from the WICB office in Antigua and the Cricket World Cup West Indies office in Jamaica a projection of the overall cost to the region of staging the World Cup. However, one person close to preparations here estimated that Jamaica alone could spend upwards of US$80 million on the event.

Jamaica, which has put in a bid for two packages and two venues – Sabina Park in Kingston and a proposed greenfield site in northern Trelawny – is one of 11 countries that have made formal offers to host matches in the International Cricket Council’s premier contest of one-day games.

The others are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States.

According to Supreme Ventures’ George, the lottery, which would also provide funds to the University of the West Indies, could be up and running by January next year, once it was approved by Caricom leaders at their Grenada summit next month and endorsed by the regulatory authorities.

“We have to respect that anything we do has to be sanctioned by the local authorities,” George emphasised in an interview with the Observer.

On Friday, Jamaica’s Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) chairman, Walter Scott, said that agency had no opposition to the proposal in its present form.

“We have no objection in principle to a Caribbean powerball or to a Caribbean-wide lottery where West Indies cricket and the University of the West Indies are to be the beneficiaries,” Scott told the newspaper.

He said, though, that if the Caricom leaders signed off on the proposal, the region would need to decide on a “principal regulator”.

“What we have now is the BGLC in Jamaica, the National Lotteries Board in Trinidad, the Control of Customs in Barbados, all of whom are regulators in the various territories,” Scott said.

“The regulators,” he added, “would have to meet and agree on one territory being the principal regulator, and no doubt that is where the system is going to be based.”

Under the proposal, the powerball lottery would be run on the common platform already established in Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Barbados, and Trinidad & Tobago by GTECH Corporation, the American technology supplier to Supreme Ventures and Leeward Islands Holdings Ltd.

Supreme Ventures’ George estimated that the required investment in additional technology to get the game rolling would range between US$15 million and US$20 million.

Jackpots, he said, would likely start at US$1 million and could increase to as much as US$6 million, with wager costs varying in each territory depending on the rate of exchange.

George appeared particularly upbeat about the potential of the lottery to increase Supreme Ventures’ donation to what is known in the industry as ‘good causes’.

Said he: “Not only will the powerball lottery offer higher jackpots, it will provide more good cause funds.”

The Observer was unable to determine Supreme Ventures’ current contribution to the Jamaican Government’s Good Cause Tax since the firm started operations in June 2001. However, at the end of its first year, Supreme Ventures reported that it had paid more than J$300 million in Good Cause Taxes.

Approximately 15 per cent of the company’s daily sales goes to the Good Cause Tax which is used to fund Government projects in the health and education sectors.