Call for cap on annual charity lottery sales to be scrapped
Gordon MP Richard Thomson has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt calling for an end to the £50 million cap on annual charity lottery sales.
The cap significantly impacts the ability of lotteries to increase the amount of funding that they can provide to charities – meaning third sector organisations miss out on millions of pounds worth of support.
The demand for funding from charities has significantly increased amid the Westminster cost of living crisis and the aftermath of the pandemic.
Charity lotteries are the only form of gambling product subject to annual caps on sales – placing an unnecessary ceiling on the amount raised for good causes.
Mr Thomson organised a virtual funding surgery during 2023 with the People’s Postcode Lottery for local voluntary organisations and is backing its campaign for the UK Government to remove the £50 million sales limit on charity lotteries as a matter of urgency to ensure charities across the country are not missing out on vital funding.
Mr Thomson said: “This is an important issue which was taken to the floor of the Scottish Parliament recently.
"Due to high inflation and the cost of living crisis we are experiencing, the cap is effectively a funding cut for these charities.
"£50 million today represents a 17.4 per cent decrease in real terms from when the cap was set at that figure in 2020.
“The cap will continue to erode the value of the £50 million every year unless it is lifted or – better still – abolished.
"Over the next five years, 100 charities backed by the People’s Postcode Lottery are set to lose out on over £175 million in extra funding due to the lottery cap.
“The Chancellor of the Exchequer and UK Government have an opportunity here to make a difference to charities by removing the charity lottery annual sales limit and it should make that happen.
“It’s outrageous that good causes providing services to some of society’s most vulnerable people will lose out on essential funding due to outdated regulations and I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer voicing those concerns.”
