Lottery cash for good causes is vital

THE National Lottery has helped fund some of the biggest projects in Wales as well as thousands of grass-roots initiatives.

Epic injections of Lottery cash helped make the likes of the Wales Millennium Centre a reality and sports funding has doubtless contributed to our success at the Olympics.

Across the nation, tiny charities and community groups have benefited from grants. The very process of putting in an application can charge volunteers with ambition and foster a team spirit.

There is cross-party concern that in 2016-17 income for good causes fell by 15% compared to the previous year.

A key reason is thought to be a shift by players towards scratch cards, which have an average return of just 10p in the £1 for good causes, compared to 30p for drawbased games. Unpopular decisions, such as increasing the number of Lotto balls, may also have driven people away from the Lottery.

This is a cause for concern because, for better or for worse, the Lottery has become an important funding stream. Organisations will worry if the flow of cash significantly slows.

It is not realistic to think that cash-strapped councils will make up for a contraction in Lottery support.

This is a reminder of why the Lottery has always been a subject of controversy. It is a form of gambling which provides funding which in other societies people would expect to come from taxation.

In the early days of the Lottery there was considerable concern that people on low incomes were effectively subsidising elite entertainment venues they would never attend themselves.

There is also a growing awareness of the destructive effects a gambling addiction can have on individuals and families, although there is much greater worry about the impact of fixed odds betting terminals on communities than the Lottery.

Nevertheless, Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee report identifies a range of areas concerning the future of the Lottery that demand attention and reform. The operator, as well as the UK Government and the Gambling Commission, have a weighty responsibility to the organisations which have come to depend on “good causes” funding, as well as towards the men and women who play the games. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%