Plea for Health Lottery to have a £1m jackpot to boost good causes

THE prize limit for The Health Lottery and other society lotteries should be a £1million jackpot per draw irrespective of sales, Parliament will hear today.

The Health Lottery has raised more than £96million, supporting half a million people through 2,600 projects since its launch in October 2011. But prizes are capped.

Society lotteries, led by the Lotteries Council, want to be able to raise more for good causes. They can currently offer a top prize no higher than 10 per cent of ticket sales. And this is also currently capped at £400,000.

They can also offer a prize of £25,000 regardless of sales, which is used by many scratchcard games.

Sir Henry Bellingham, Conservative MP for North West Norfolk, is urging Parliament to conclude a longrunning review of how the 491 non-commercial fundraising lotteries for charities in the UK operate.

He has tabled an adjournment debate to discuss “the future of society lotteries, The Health Lottery and limits on prize values”. Sir Henry said: “When people look at the current arrangements they can see it is not fair.

“The nanny state is saying, ‘we will control your prizes’.

“The Health Lottery is a fine example of money going to very good causes and putting something back.

“If people want to play a private lottery, the people running them should be able to set their own prize limits.

“Camelot has become very arrogant. It does a lot of good things but it does not have a monopoly in raising money from lotteries and giving it to good causes, so it is ridiculous to have these restrictions in place.”

The Health Lottery scheme manages 51 society lotteries, each raising money for its own area of the country, which is distributed by the People’s Health Trust to communities across Britain.

The trust’s chief executive, John Hume, said more money was needed to support good causes at a time of local government cuts, which could be achieved by raising the prize cap.

He said: “Raising money for good causes through society lotteries such as The Health Lottery has been an essential £96million lifeline for local projects.

“What is more, time has clearly shown that they do not harm other lotteries or other forms of fundraising.”

Mark Atkinson, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said: “Scope has benefited greatly from society lotteries such as The Health Lottery. We would welcome an increase in the prize limit to £1million.”