Melbourne property investor Adrian Portelli will stand trial in a South Australian court over allegations he ran illegal lotteries.

Adrian Portelli holds several 100 dollar bills in his hand

The 36-year-old appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court via video link on Thursday where a date was set for trial.

According to Mr Portelli’s Instagram profile, he is currently in Singapore.

In court, Mr Portelli and his company Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, entered not guilty pleas to a total of 19 charges of being a person conducting/assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery.

Mr Portelli has been charged with nine offences and the company with 10.

The charges against both range in date from January 29, 2023, to May 16, 2024.

Adrian Portelli sitting with his hands folded on a table

Adrian Portelli’s alleged offending occurred between January 2023 and May 2024. (Instagram: lmctplus)

Mr Portelli rose to prominence when he purchased several properties on the reality television show The Block.

Xclusive Tech is charged over several lotteries that offered properties from The Block as a major prize.

The prosecution asked the court for “basic” video link technology to be available during the trial to allow videos to be presented to the court.

Mr Portelli’s defence lawyer told the court two witnesses would be called to give evidence on his behalf during the trial.

As per South Australia’s Lotteries Act 2019, any lottery that is not licensed in the state is unlawful, with organisers facing a maximum penalty of $10,000.

The alleged offences do not carry a prison term.

Chief Magistrate Judge Mary-Louise Hribal scheduled the trial for two days in September.