# Charities urge government not to raid Lottery funds for Olympics

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/11/20/charities-urge-government-not-raid-lottery-funds-olympics/
- Published: 2006-11-20T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has expressed its concern
that government Ministers are considering a further raid on the National Lottery
to pay for the increased costs of staging the 2012 Olympics.
Stuart Etherington,
Chief Executive at NCVO said: “The 2012 Olympics are an exciting opportunity for
the UK and present a huge range of volunteering opportunities. But the news that
further lottery funding for good causes could be diverted to the Olympics will worry
voluntary and community organisations across the country.

“£1.5 billion of Lottery funding is already being diverted to the Olympics. A further
raid will therefore leave a significant shortfall in funding to good causes. Charities
want the Olympics to be a success, but it is vital that good causes do not bear 
the burden of Olympic funding.

NCVO, together with its sister councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland,
has proposed a solution to the current funding concerns, namely a reform of the 
12% tax on National Lottery tickets.

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By abolishing or reducing the tax on lottery tickets, funding could be returned 
to good causes and ensure that charities are not unduly affected over the Olympic
period.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has reportedly backed this approach, saying
that he believed that the “first port of call” to tackle overruns should be pressure
on the Treasury to forgo its 12p tax on the lottery.

Stuart Etherington said: A review of this tax is overdue – no formal review of lottery
taxation has been carried out in the eleven years of the Lottery. The original rationale
for the tax was to compensate the Treasury for duty lost from other forms of gambling
as people switched to playing the Lottery. This no longer stands.”

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