Melbourne billionaire Adrian Portelli – known for his cash and property giveaways, including houses from reality show The Block – will plead not guilty to nine charges of assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery.
The Adelaide magistrates court heard on Wednesday morning that both Portelli and his company, Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd (which operates under the name LMCT+), would contest the charges.
Portelli was not required to appear at the hearing.
Ben Lodge, who is acting for both parties, said that they wanted the matter dealt with quickly.
Xclusive faces 10 charges for conducting or assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery.
Portelli bought all the properties in the latest season of The Block to give away, but the winner chose to take $8m prize money instead of the properties.
Portelli’s company offers members subscriptions to a “rewards club”, and subscribers then get entries to win cars and properties. The model is known as a trade promotion lottery.
SA’s Consumer and Business Services (CBS) investigated cases including some giveaways from The Block before bringing the 19 charges.
According to court documents, the incidents occurred between 29 January 2023 and 16 May 2024.
“The major prize for the lottery was a property situated in Gisborne in the state of Victoria as seen on the Australian television show The Block, or a cash prize of $3,000,000,” the documents said.
Giving away the prize “involved an element of chance” but the defendant “did not hold a licence to conduct the lottery in South Australia”, it was alleged.
Two other Block properties, one valued at about $2.9m and the other not given a value were offered as prizes, with cash prizes of $2.5m and $2m respectively offered as alternatives. Another property on the Gold Coast valued at $1.3m was also a major prize.
Lodge asked for a pre-trial conference to be listed for later on Wednesday.
“Our instructions are that the matter is contested and we are keen to progress the matter to trial as soon as we can,” he said.
But the matter was adjourned to 6 March.
