Allwyn backs government’s decision to retain cap on society lottery sales
Calling the decision “positive news,” Allwyn noted the National Lottery has raised over £50 billion for good causes since its launch and over £1.8 billion in 2023/24 alone.
Allwyn, operator of the National Lottery, has welcomed the government’s decision not to raise the sales limit for society lotteries, describing it as a crucial step to safeguard the National Lottery and the funding it provides to good causes across the UK.
Responding to a statement made in the House of Lords by Baroness Twycross, minister for gambling and heritage, on 26 June, Allwyn said the move reinforces the importance of maintaining a “One National Lottery” model. This comes after government-commissioned research found that raising the current £50 million annual sales cap could lead to a loss of up to £148 million in National Lottery sales.
“We welcome and support the government’s clear-sighted decision to protect The National Lottery and ensure a lotteries sector centred on one national lottery,” said an Allwyn spokesperson. “As the DCMS report shows, the One National Lottery model is the best way to maximise returns to society via National Lottery good causes and to the Treasury.”
Calling the decision “positive news,” Allwyn noted the National Lottery has raised over £50 billion for good causes since its launch and over £1.8 billion in 2023/24 alone.
“Our own research has shown the society lotteries have impacted good cause funding by £1 billion. Charitable support has never been more important in the UK and Allwyn, under the terms of the Fourth Licence, has ambitious plans to double the amount raised for good causes,” the company added.
The company also welcomed the government’s plan to introduce a voluntary code for prize draw operators, an unregulated £1.3 billion market, as a step toward improving player protection and transparency.
Sector pushback
However, the decision has disappointed many within the society lotteries sector. The Lotteries Council, the industry representative body of Britain's society lottery sector, said the government had missed a key opportunity to boost funding for UK charities.
“The Lotteries Council is deeply disappointed that the government is unwilling to increase the present legal limit on how much society lotteries can raise annually, despite their own research demonstrating that the step could raise as much as £175 million by the end of this Parliament for the UK charity sector,” said George Collins, chair of the Lotteries Council.
Collins also criticised the lack of action to regulate large-scale prize draws, which currently do not require a licence under the Gambling Act 2005. “This is a missed opportunity to raise more money for the nation’s good causes and to put the charity lottery sector on a firmer and fairer footing in the future,” he said.
Government’s position
Baroness Twycross said the government remains committed to a model centred on a single National Lottery, which has “created the conditions for the National Lottery to flourish” over the past three decades. She acknowledged that while society lotteries play an important role, the government’s commissioned research had shown that lifting the current cap could have unintended consequences.
“The research found that increasing the annual sales limit to £100 million could have several impacts on the National Lottery with a decrease in participation with players being displaced to society lotteries - National Lottery sales could fall by between £25 million and £148 million,” she noted, adding that this could result in “less money for National Lottery funded good causes.”
While acknowledging the growth of the society lottery market, which topped £1 billion in sales in 2023/24, the minister said the government would not be pursuing legislative changes to increase the sales limit at this time.
The annual sales limit on society lotteries has been increased lotteries from £10 million to £50 million in 2020, in response to the challenges that many society lottery operators were facing to operate within the limit.
The independent research, commissioned by the previous government, found that five operators now have annual sales over the previous £10 million limit, with the current annual sales limit of £50 million only impacting one operator, the People’s Postcode Lottery (PPL).
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