CMS Committee calls for end to 12% duty on lottery tickets

Howard Lake | 25 March 2004 | News

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has today published its report on reform of the National Lottery. Its recommendations include the scrapping of the 12% duty on lottery ticket sales.

The Committee noted that the Exchequer has received nearly £5 billion in Lottery Duty since 1994/95, which is about a third of the funds raised for good causes. It called for the lottery ticket money to be split between prizes and money for good causes.

“We believe,” said the Committee, “that this enormous sum, taken in conjunction with Lottery spending in line with Government priorities, represents a double hit on the money paid out for tickets by the public.”

It added: “the Committee can think of no better way of achieving a palpable hit with the Lottery-ticket-buying public than for the Government to eschew Lottery Duty entirely with the aim of dividing the funds thereby released between prizes (thus enforcing the principal driver of sales) and good causes (a significant factor in keeping players playing over the longer term).”

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) welcomed this recommendation and others. It was delighted that the Committee has “condemned the undermining of the lottery’s independence by the Government’s plans to establish an Olympic lottery fund” and that it had also
“supported the voluntary sector’s calls for the funding of the promotion of the lottery to be provided by Camelot and not the lottery fund.”

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.