High-profile businessman Adrian Portelli says he has proof his company was “fed misinformation”, as his trial on unlawful lottery charges begins.

Portelli, 35, from Melbourne, is undergoing a two-day trial in Adelaide Magistrates Court, charged with nine counts related to conducting or aiding in the operation of an unlawful lottery in South Australia.

His business Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, which trades under the name LMCT+, is charged with 10 counts of the same offence.

The charges, brought forward by South Australia’s Consumer and Business Services, claim that Portelli’s company was operating without a license for 10 separate lotteries from January 29, 2023, to May 16, 2024.

Portelli’s company offers members subscriptions to a “rewards club” that includes entries to win cars and properties.

Under SA law, any trade promotion lotteries with prizes exceeding $5000 need a licence to operate and entries must be free of charge.

Portelli gained fame as “the Lambo Guy” in 2022, after arriving at a house auction for The Block in a yellow Lamborghini.

In the 2024 series of the reality show, he spent $15.03 million to acquire all five homes on offer.

The Block airs on Channel 9, which is owned by Nine, the publisher of this website.

Portelli laughed and smiled broadly as the court was shown videos published online of him conducting lottery draws and contacting winners.

The initial three videos presented to the court today featured prizes including a house from the TV series The Block or $3 million, a Devil Yellow HSV car, and a $250,000 cash award.

Consumer and Business Services senior investigator Jeff Betts told the court that no licences had been granted by CBS for the lotteries.

Outside court, Portelli said the morning’s proceedings had been “a trip down memory lane”.

“I’m enjoying it, I’m watching videos I haven’t seen in years,” he said.

Asked what his defence would be, Portelli said: “I can’t say anything at the moment”.

“It’s a big miscommunication between both parties,” he said.

“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.”

When questioned about whether he considered the prosecution to be a misuse of taxpayers’ money, he responded, “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 his company had not been refunded tens of thousands of dollars after being refused any more lottery permits in SA.

“We’ve got a bunch of correspondence between both parties. They don’t even know what’s going on,” he told reporters.

“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.

“My lawyer’s probably shaking his head at me because I’m talking all this but really I don’t give a f—.”

Portelli and his company faces a maximum penalty of $190,000.

He has previously said on social media if he were convicted, he would “round it up to $200,000”.

The trial, before magistrate Melanie Burton, continues.