The lotto games organiser, Maltco Lotteries, was yesterday accused of deception, by the Lotto Receivers Union and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, which have registered an industrial dispute with it.

The dispute, and deception charge, are the result of changes introduced to the highly popular lotto game at the weekend.

The unions said the changes which have been introduced are attractive but Maltco was failing to give a full picture. Maltco was emphasising the increases in certain prizes, but failing to make the same emphasis on the fine print.

Maltco had obtained the right to reduce the prizes fund, which to date has been Lm500,000, and establish it as 70 per cent of the sales of any particular week, using its discretion on when to do this. This meant, the unions said, that when prizes won exceeded the fund, a punter could be given less in prize money than he would have been entitled to.

The unions have argued with Maltco that this was a disincentive and would encourage clandestine lotto. During the course of negotiations the finance authorities in the government had accepted a proposal that apart from a reduction when there were many winnings, there would also be an addition to the prizes when winnings were low. Maltco has refused this proposal, the unions said.

Maltco has not accepted this and went ahead with the changes, and was not giving consumers the full picture. Which, the unions said, left them with no alternative but to register an industrial dispute.