Adrian Portelli, the Melbourne billionaire best known buying The Block properties, fronted Adelaide Magistrates Court this week as his trial kicked off for allegedly running unlawful lotteries in South Australia.
Portelli, 35, turned up facing nine counts of conducting or assisting in the conduct of illegal lotteries, while his business Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, trading as LMCT+, copped 10 counts of the same offence.
Videos played in court showing Portelli as he drew winners for prizes like a house from The Block, a rare sports car, and a $250,000 cash windfall. These videos were all streamed to the LMCT+ community.
According to SA’s Consumer and Business Services, no proper licences ever existed for the lotteries operated between January 2023 and May 2024.
The prosecution claims Portelli’s business failed to hold permits for a subscription-based “rewards club” that dangled cars and homes, despite the South Australian law requiring a licence for any lottery with prizes over $5,000 and insisting all entries must be free.
Portelli’s legal exposure runs deep — if convicted, he and LMCT+ could be looking at a $190,000 penalty, though Portelli quipped on social media that if that happened, he’d “round it up to $200,000”.
After the morning’s proceedings, Portelli spoke candidly to reporters, describing the court session as “a trip down memory lane”.
He said, “I’m enjoying it, I’m watching videos I haven’t seen in years.”
When pressed on his defence, Portelli kept it vague: “I can’t say anything at the moment. It’s a big miscommunication between both parties.”
He claims his company played by the rules everywhere except South Australia, saying, “We’ve complied with every state in Australia bar SA. We had a good relationship with them but someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
He didn’t hold back when asked if the prosecution was a waste of money.
“Yeah, I think it is. I’m not going to sit down and let them walk all over me, I’m going to fight it,” he said.
Portelli further alleged that SA authorities haven’t paid back hefty permit fees after refusing more LMCT+ lotteries. “We’ve got a bunch of correspondence between both parties. They don’t even know what’s going on. They’ve given us wrong information. This is why we kept operating the way we were, because we were fed misinformation from their end and we’ve got proof of that,” he said.
“My lawyer’s probably shaking his head at me because I’m talking all this but really I don’t give a fuck.”
Portelli’s popularity began with his viral entrance at The Block auction in a yellow Lamborghini back in 2022, but the current legal showdown is a very different kind of spotlight.
Thursday’s court session made it clear that both sides are digging in. The trial continues.
Lead image: The Block / Instagram
The post ‘I Don’t Give A F**k’: Adrian Portelli In Court Over Unlawful Lottery Allegations appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
