That faith in Portelli and his business model isn’t universal. On an unofficial LMCT+ Facebook page (one of many), the chatter took on a different tone.
“I use to be an LMCT member but just realised looking into it it’s a scam,” wrote one. “There’s a reason he’s going to court next month for it.”
South Australia’s gambling regulator has charged Portelli and his company Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, which trades as LMCT+ (which stands for Licensed Motor Car Trader, plus), with nine counts of being involved in “the conduct of an unlawful lottery”.
The alleged offences relate to several promotions by Portelli and his business between January 2023 and May 2024, which included prizes of properties bought from The Block, cash of up to $3 million and luxury cars. (Channel Nine, which broadcasts The Block, is owned by Nine Entertainment Co, which also owns this masthead.)
This masthead is not suggesting that LMCT+ or Portelli is guilty of any illegal behaviour.
This is not the first time Portelli has been involved in an online competition affected by a technical glitch.
In November 2021, Xclusive Tech participated in an auction run online by Grays for a meticulously restored 1976 Ford Falcon coupe. Portelli was bidding against a rival “car raffle” company, Thomas Bailey’s Classics For a Cause, and won the vehicle – with licence plate XBOSS – with a bid of $860,100.
Adrian ‘Lambo Guy’ Portelli and one of his much-loved cars.Credit: Kristoffer Paulsen
Initially, though, Bailey believed he had won the car with a bid of $464,900. With no further bids received within a 10-minute period, the online auction system automatically generated an email declaring “YOU HAVE WON!”
Unfortunately for Bailey, that was simply because a server linked to the auction had been set to UTC (co-ordinated universal) time rather than AEDT (Australian eastern daylight time), with the result that some bids were recorded as having been made 11 hours earlier than they actually were.
Once the glitch was discovered, a second auction was run, with Portelli winning the vehicle.
Bailey’s company took the matter to court in 2023, but lost – thanks to a clause in Grays’ user agreement covering “technological difficulties”, which allowed the company to declare a result void and run the auction again.
The terms and conditions for LMTC’s The Block giveaway state that the company is “not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of computer systems, servers, software, internet service provider, or e-mail systems, failure of any entry to be received on account of technical problems or incomplete, late, lost, damaged, illegible or misdirected electronic communications, or any combination thereof”.
In a video posted to Instagram on Friday morning, Portelli promised, “I am coming back for vengeance. Tonight’s show is going to be absolute killer, it’s going to be our biggest show ever.”
Portelli was contacted for comment.
