STURT Mall Newsagency owner Neville Harvey fears for the viability of his business - and other newsagents in Wagga - should they lose the exclusive right to sell lottery products.
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When NSW Lotteries was privatised in 2010, the then-Labor state government instituted a five-year cooling off period with new owners, Tatts, preventing other retailers from selling lottery products, including tickets and scratchies.
That moratorium will expire at the end of March, just three days after the next state election.
Fears have arisen among newsagents that large supermarket chains such as Coles and Woolworths will be allowed to sell lottery products once it expires, with operators worried it will reduce them to bit-part players in that market.
Mr Harvey said the sale of lottery products was a crucial part of his business.
"We rely on lotto products to not only bring customers into the shop, but also for the financial viability of the shop," he said.
"That's been the way for a number of years now."
When Mr Harvey started in the newsagency business three decades ago, he said newsagents had the sole licence to sell newspapers and magazines, as well as lottery tickets, and those rights had been gradually eroded over the years.
Should his last big exclusive earner be opened up to the large chains, Mr Harvey believes it would spell the end of his newsagency at its current site in the Sturt Mall.
"We couldn't survive paying the overheads and higher rents in shopping centres," he said.
"We'd probably have to go back to strip shopping ... there's no way in the world you could afford to stay in a shopping centre and not have exclusive lottery products."
Mr Harvey said profit margins for his business had remained largely static for a number of years, but overheads were consistently growing at a steady pace.