Scratchcard boom hits lottery good causes

NATIONAL Lottery cash for good causes fell by £300million as Britons bought scratchcards instead of entering the main draw, the public spending watchdog has found.

The news came as it was revealed that profits handed back to Camelot’s shareholders rose by 122 per cent to £71million between 2009-10 and 201617. Its accounts showed that lottery sales increased by 27 per cent to £6.9billion over the past seven years.

However, good causes were 15 per cent worse off as charity proceeds fell from £1.93 billion to £1.63 billion because scratchcard games donate a lower percentage than the main draw.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that for each pound spent on the lottery, 34p was given to good causes for the draw, falling to as little as 5p for scratchcards. The proportion of sales from the draw fell from 76 per cent in 2009-10 to 58 per cent last year, while the proportion of cash raised from scratchcards sales nearly doubled from 24 per cent to 42 per cent.

The NAO said distributors, which include UK Sport, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund, often had commitments spanning many years, “so it is likely that [these] will exceed their fund balance at a given date”.