Agenda item

Surrey Heath Lottery

Minutes:

The Committee received a report from Jayne Boitoult, the Council’s Community Development Officer in respect of the Surrey Heath Lottery.

 

Following an Executive resolution, the Surrey Heath Lottery had been introduced in order to support local good causes in the community. The scheme was run by Gatherwell Ltd, an established External Lottery Management Company, and operated completely online.

 

60% of all ticket sales went to good causes, whilst 20% of ticket sales went to the funding of prizes, and the remaining 20% went towards running costs. The latter amount included 3% of reclaimable VAT. Lottery players could pick one of 38 specific good causes to support on purchase of their ticket. Alternatively they could choose to support the local causes central fund.

 

The Council held the role of holding the Gambling Commission Licence for the scheme and was also responsible for the process of assessing the eligibility of Good Causes.

 

Arising from Members’ questions the following points were noted:

 

·         Applicable good causes included registered charities, registered community interest companies and constituted groups with volunteer management committees. Good causes must also operate within Surrey Heath.

·         Gatherwell Ltd was chosen as the scheme’s External Lottery Manager (ELM), after the consideration of two ELMs. Gatherwell were the outright market leader in respect of community lotteries and had experience of managing nearly 50 Council run lotteries nationwide.

·         Gatherwell’s marketing materials provided greater emphasis in respect of the lotteries funding of good causes. On signing up good causes were provided with various marketing materials to promote their participation in the lottery. This included bespoke e-resources for websites and social media and directed an organisation’s supporters to an individual lottery landing page for the good cause.

·         Whilst certain faith groups and organisations may refrain from participation in the scheme, it was underlined that lottery revenues were not a substitute for current funding streams and simply acted as a way to give a small boost to good causes’ annual funds.  

·         The lottery produced no additional ongoing running costs to the Council and the 3% of ticket costs, from recouped VAT, would pay for Council’s annual lottery licence of approximately £700 a year.

 

 

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