Soroti CAO under fire over betting

MANAGEMENT

SOROTI - Soroti district councillors have pointed guns to the chief administrative officer (CAO) and his technical staff over failure to implement a ban on peacock betting machines.

The councillors accuse the office of the CAO and its technical staff of ignoring the council resolution to ban peacock betting machines in the district, which they passed in the previous council sitting in June last year.

Bob Owiny, one of the councillors told New Vision that although councillors passed a resolution to ban the machines on grounds of increased theft among the youth, in the CAO, together with his team has done nothing to implement it.

He added that the majority of councillors supported the resolution to ban sports betting, but up to now, the illicit business is still operational.

In response, Joseph Balisanyuka, the CAO, said the sports betting halls are already licensed and the district authorities cannot close them until their licences expire.

According to Balisanyuka, his office will not license sports betting businesses again so the councillors should be patient.

"We could not close their businesses when they have paid for licences" added Balisanyuka.