Ireland’s largest charity lottery comes to an end
Howard Lake | 21 December 2017 | News
One of the biggest charity lotteries in Ireland has announced that it is ceasing operation, according to a report in the Irish Times.
The Irish Times report says Elmco, the company that ran scratchcard lotteries and radio bingo on behalf of Rehab and other charities, ceased trading this month. It attributed this to “accumulated financial losses” as a result of “changing market dynamics and rapidly evolving technology”.
Based on accounts for 2016, Rehab lottery accounted for €2.9 million of total voluntary income of €3.4 million for the disability charity. In 2015, the Rehab lottery contributed €686,000 to the charity but no contribution in the form of grant income is recorded for last year.
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Rehab ran a number of lottery activities over the years with the main activity being Rehab Lotteries where the core business was the marketing of a range of scratch card games through a network of 1,400 retail agents nationwide and through local radio stations.
With the setting up of the formerly government-run National Lottery, Rehab became the main beneficiary of a government compensation scheme for charities running lotteries which has been phased out. During the time the compensation operated Rehab received around €80 million.
Rehab says it is currently diversifying its fundraising, focusing on a new strategic direction with a strong emphasis on local fundraising for local services. Two years ago Rehab was at the centre of a very high profile controversy over the remuneration of its chief executive.
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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.