Cheltenham Lottery
The Cheltenham Lottery is now live:
Good causes are invited to register on our website
The first ticket sales will take start on 8 October
The first draw will take place on 16 November.
Background
The Cheltenham’s Place Vision sets out a vision where Cheltenham is a place where all our people and the communities they live in thrive.
Given the continuing financial pressure that this council and its voluntary and community sector partners are under, there continues to be a need to explore new ways of generating income to support the delivery of this vision.
There are now over 60 Councils operating or in the process of setting up a local Community Lottery as a means of accessing a new funding stream to support local good causes.
Cheltenham Borough Council has now agreed to establish a Cheltenham Lottery to create a longer-term sustainable source of funds that will support our people, good causes and communities to thrive.
The Cheltenham Lottery is expected to go live in the early Autumn 2019. Good causes wishing to apply will be able to register online once the lottery is live.
How the lottery will work
The Cheltenham Lottery will be a weekly lottery that will raise money for good causes in Cheltenham. Tickets for the lottery will cost £1 and each ticket will have a 1 in 50 chance to win a prize, with a top prize of £25,000.
The Cheltenham Lottery will have its own dedicated website; players can only play online and will need to register before buying tickets.
Each ticket will consist of 6 numbers and each number will be between 0 and 9. There will be a draw every Saturday night when a 6 digit winning combination will be picked. Prizes will be given to players with tickets that match the first or last 2-6 numbers from the winning combination:
- Match 6 numbers and win £25,000
- Match 5 numbers and win £2,000
- Match 4 numbers and win £250
- Match 3 numbers and win £25
- Match 2 numbers and win 3 extra tickets
The allocation of proceeds to good causes
Whatever the type of lottery, they have to deliver a minimum of 20% of proceeds to good causes. It is proposed that 60% of the proceeds of the Cheltenham Lottery are allocated to good causes. This will be on the following model:
Specific Good Causes – It is proposed that 50% of the proceeds will be allocated to groups that ‘sign-up’ to take part in the lottery for their good cause. By signing up they will have their own web page for the lottery helping them in engaging players and raising income. Players buying tickets through specific web pages will know that the profits are for that specific good cause. This in turn motivates the group to gain more players to support their specific cause.
Central Fund – It is proposed that 10% of the proceeds are held by the Borough Council and allocated to the No Child Left Behind year of action. The lottery funds will be used to directly support projects that will benefit local children and will therefore be charitable in purpose.
In addition, if a player chooses not to name a specific good cause, 60% (50% + 10%) of their proceeds will go by default to the No Child Left Behind year of action.
The Council will manage the good causes joining the scheme to ensure that they comply with the specific eligibility criteria
Gambling Responsibility
Lotteries are the most common type of gambling activity across the world, and considered to be a ‘low risk’ form with respect to the emergence of problem gambling. This is due to its relatively controlled form. The Cheltenham Lottery will help mitigate against many of the issues related to addictive gambling by:
- The lottery only being only playable via direct debit and by pre-arranged sign up
- There is no ‘instant’ gratification or ‘instant reward’ to taking part
- There will be no ‘high profile’ activity surrounding the draw
- It is possible to put a maximum cap on the number of tickets that an individual can purchase
In addition, the Cheltenham Lottery website will contain a section providing links to gambling support organisations.
In this way the Cheltenham Lottery will not significantly increase problem gambling; and the benefits to good causes in the Borough from the proceeds of the lottery balances against possible negative issues.
Charities and community groups can find out more about how they can benefit by emailing [email protected] or calling 01242 264297.
Good Causes Launch
Please see the attached presentation here