Adrian Portelli is adamant that his company is not exploiting a legal loophole by giving away prizes worth millions of dollars, now including all five houses from The Block, bought at auction last week for more than $15m.
The billionaire, also known as “Lambo guy”, is famous for his love of fast cars (particularly Lamborghinis, and he once craned a McLaren Senna GTR into a $39m Melbourne penthouse), but his business model is less well known.
Portelli’s company LMCT+ (which stands for “licensed motor car trader”) runs a platform that offers members discounts at various stores and access to prize draws as part of a “rewards club”.
They can add one-off packages that increase the number of entries they hold to specific draws. There is one running now for the houses from The Block, the Channel Nine ratings juggernaut.
LMCT+’s website says people can now “win the entire Block Phillip Island Resort, with five fully furnished luxury homes or take $8 million in tax-free cash”.
The odds of winning are not visible on the site and LMCT+ did not respond to a request for comment on whether they are ever made available to members.
Even without the Block-specific sales, Australians are paying LMCT+ many millions of dollars a year.
According to its LinkedIn page, LMCT+ has more than 300,000 members.
Its website highlights the draw prizes on offer.
“Since starting in 2018 we’ve given away over $70m in prizes and to thousands of Aussies with prizes ranging from cars, bikes, boats, houses, and cash promotions and we are just getting started,” its website says.
Even if all 300,000 members were on the lowest subscription level – $19.99 a month – that equates to almost $72m a year. If they were all on the highest level – $99.99 a month – that would equate to almost $360m a year.
Then there are the one-off packages. For the latest Block giveaway, they range from entry-level ($10 for two entries) to platinum ($500 for 1,000 entries).
An article last year in the Australian Financial Review Magazine announced Portelli’s arrival on the Young Rich List. It said LMCT+ had revenue of more than $70m a year but at that point it had only 100,000 members.
Portelli told the magazine he was “always humble” but consumed by the thought of being successful. He worked in his Maltese immigrant father’s truck repair business and a range of other jobs including a dating/social media platform that evolved into a food app, which in turn evolved into LMCT+.
‘It’s a legal way to give away a car’
In general only not-for-profit organisations are allowed to run lotteries in Australia but companies can offer “trade promotions”, which are regulated by state and territory governments. Entry must be free, or in exchange for goods or services – unless you’re a not-for-profit organisation you could not just sell entries to a raffle to win The Block houses or a Lamborghini.
In the case of LMCT+, the goods and services are the rewards club membership. A more traditional trade promotion might be buying a six-pack of beer to go into a draw to win an esky.
In a video posted online in February, Portelli said when he launched LMCT+ he started raffling cars, and an unspecified gaming commission rang him “straight away” to say he could not do so.
“It was at that pivotal moment … I could have thrown it all in … [but] I’m like what happens if I just gave the car away to one of my members that bought the software and then … anyone that’s bought the software, I give the car to them,” he said.
“So 10 minutes later I call back the gaming commission and I’m like ‘hey what happens if I gave the car away to one of my customers?’. And she’s like ‘yeah, that works’.”
He said he then stopped using the word “raffle”.
“It’s not a loophole, it’s a legal way to give away a car,” he said.
No state regulator has found otherwise.
A Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) spokesperson said the commission was monitoring people and organisations that conducted trade promotion lotteries and it had investigated complaints about LMCT+, “of which none resulted in findings against the company under Victorian legislation”.
NSW Fair Trading investigated LMCT+ in 2022 and 2023. A spokesperson said LMCT+ supplied information and records and the evidence did not indicate a breach of the law.
“NSW Fair Trading periodically reviews this legislation and policy to ensure it is fit for purpose,” the spokesperson said.
South Australia’s Consumer and Business Services has confirmed it has an investigation under way into LMCT+.
Multiple customers have complained online of difficulties cancelling their LMCT+ membership. Of 70 reviews on Product Review, about half are glowing five-star reviews, while the other half are mostly one-star reviews with many complaining about issues including trouble cancelling memberships. LMCT+ has responded by saying it is “straightforward” to cancel.
Dozens of similarly structured companies have sprung up after Portelli’s success. Several legal firms have published instructions on setting up similar operations.
Portelli and LMCT+ did not respond to requests for comment.
• This article was amended on 15 November 2024. A previous version said a Lamborghini was craned into the penthouse.
