Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad has obtained a 2,000-page document indicating that the
Dutch State Lottery has been spying on its competitor, Novamedia.
According to the document, top management for the lottery hired international accounting firm KPMG as well as a private investigator to gather incriminating evidence related to Novamedia's hugely popular Postcode Lottery. It is not clear whether this was a wide-scale fishing exhibition or whether the investigators were trying to uncover specific violations.
It appears, however, that over a period spanning 2001 and 2002, the State Lottery's now ex-GM, Gerard van Egerschot, and his marketing colleague, Pim Bomas, found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Novamedia. In the meantime, both managers left the State Lottery in 2003, following the introduction of an SMS lottery that turned out to be a tremendous failure.
Suspicions of wrongdoing were first acted upon in 2000, when the Dutch Ministry of Justice asked Deloitte & Touche to execute research concerning Novamedia and the financial interweave of the Dutch Postcode Lottery and other foundations around the Postcode Lottery. The Deloitte & Touche report made some minor suggestions, but could not find anything against the rules and laws.
It appears that Egerschot and Bomas left the State Lottery with a golden handshake and are not giving any information on the investigation, and it appears that all the information concerning the research on Novamedia has vanished from the offices of the State Lottery. A source with the State Lottery has confessed, however, that the spying has taken place.
The lottery's current management is now tasked with cleaning the mess.
"Our reaction was one of bewildering and disbelief," CEO Bouwdewijn Poelmann said in an exclusive interview with IGN. "Now we demand to get all the reports on our organization. And even the chairman of the council of the supervisory board of the Dutch State Lottery (well known ex-minister Korhals Altes) confirmed that he knew that this spying was going on. The legal consequences will be enormous."
Further, several political parties are expected to address the matter in the Dutch Parliament.