Weekly Horsham lottery run by council will see good causes benefit

The year-long trial, which includes a £25,000 top prize and other smaller prizes, was approved by Horsham District Council on Thursday (January 24).

Members were told that a list of voluntary organisations and charities would be drawn up and would be given 60 per cent of the takings from the £1 tickets. This compares to less than 30 per cent going to good causes from the National Lottery.

A report to members said players would buy the tickets online, nominating a preferred cause to receive the money when they did so.

While 50 per cent would go to the chosen cause, another 10 per cent would go into a council fund to be distributed by them, 20 per cent would go on prize money and three per cent VAT.

A further 17 per cent would go to an external lottery management company, which would be taken on to run the system.

This is in line with other councils such as Aylesbury and Oxford, and was described as ‘a small amount’ by cabinet member Tricia Youtan (Con, Itchingfield, Slinfold & Warnham).

If players did not nominate a good cause, all 60 per cent would go to the council fund.

Mrs Youtan said the money would provide ‘additional and sustainable financial support’ to local causes, with the potential to raise £113,000 if the scheme went into a second and third year.

She added: “The lottery could also provide a legacy for the Year of Culture groups that run events as part of this initiative and might wish to continue beyond 2019.”

While supporting the idea of a lottery, Philip Circus (Con, Chanctonbury) said: “We have to be mindful of the fact that gambling is a problem in our society. We see evidence that lives are ruined by gambling.”

He added: “I think the fact that a number of good causes are going to benefit from the arrangement probably tips the balance in favour of it.”

Mrs Youtan assured members that there would be ‘stringent checks’, with players having to register to take part, age checks being carried out, and a limit on the number of tickets each person could buy.

She said: “The emphasis on this is that it’s a council-run lottery for good causes. It’s very low key.

“It’s not large sums of money. It will be controlled, so we won’t have people who are speculating and hoping to increase their fortunes enormously.

We feel that the overall benefit to increase any money going into good causes is worth taking what perhaps could be conceived as a minor risk.”

Ray Dawe, leader of the council, said: “This is even more innocent than a scratch card.”