# Lotteries Council calls for Government to ‘future-proof’ society lottery limits

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/09/17/lotteries-council-calls-government-future-proof-society-lottery-limits/
- Published: 2018-09-17T08:00:26+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**The Lotteries Council has called on the Government to ‘future-proof” new fundraising
limits in its response to the society lotteries consultation.**

 

In [its response](https://www.lotteriescouncil.org.uk/images/content/news/Lotteries-Council-Society-Lottery-consultation-response.pdf),
the Council said that new fundraising limits should be set at a level that would
work for the decade ahead, instead of needing to be changed again in a few years’
time.

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On this basis, the Council back a new £100 million annual sales limit, a £10 million
per draw sales limit and a £1 million top prize regardless of sales. The Council
also backs changes to reduce the regulatory burden on small society lotteries by
raising the sales thresholds for those lotteries to £40,000 per draw and £500,000
per year.

 

In regards to the 20% rule, the Council believes that new lotteries should be allowed
to aggregate their returns to good causes over a three-year period to enable them
to meet the statutory 20% to good causes, taking into account the start-up costs
they face.

 

[Lotteries Council](http://www.lotteriescouncil.org.uk) Chair, Tony Vick, said:

 

> “It has been around a decade since the last changes to the law on society lotteries.
> In that period the society lottery sector had seen strong growth, raising hundreds
> of millions for good causes across the country. It is a real fundraising success
> story.
> “However the process of reviewing the law has taken a very long time, and over
> that period the current limits have increased the bureaucracy of fundraising this
> way for many of our member organisations. Change is well overdue but we need the
> new limits to work for the foreseeable future.”

 

Chair of the Lotteries Council Public Affairs Committee, Malcolm Fleming, added:

 

> “Good legislation is that which stands the test of time and we do not want to 
> be in the position of having to ask Government to raise these limits again in 
> a year or two. That is why The Lotteries Council urges the Minister, Tracey Crouch
> MP, to ‘future proof’ the limits, by setting them at a level which doesn’t just
> work for 2018, but which will still work over the years ahead.
> “The Lotteries Council believes that an annual sales limit of £100 million, a 
> per draw sales limit of £10 million and a maximum prize of £1 million, can stand
> the test of time and are also not over burdensome to lottery operators, one of
> the key objectives the Government set out when it published its consultation.”

 

The Institute of Fundraising also recently [published its response](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/09/07/iof-calls-higher-limits-society-lottery-consultation-response/)
to the consultation, having sought the views of its members. It also recommended
raising the individual per draw sales limit to £10 million rather than £5 million,
and the individual per draw maximum prize limit to £1m, rather than the proposed
£500,000, with an increase in the per draw limit for small lotteries to £40,000.

 

 

 

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