Community lottery to support good causes looks set to be backed for Daventry district

On Thursday this week Daventry District Council’s strategy group will discuss a report which recommends setting up the lottery.

Not only would it raise money for local causes, but players can actually direct money from their ticket to specific groups or charities.

Each player would be able to nominate a local good cause to receive 40 per cent of their ticket price directly. Charities and groups would need to sign up to the lottery via the council to take part.

That 40 per cent from tickets without a nominated charity would go into the community grant fund maintained by Daventry District Council.

The council report states the price of each £1 ticket would be split with 40p going to the good cause directly; 10p going into a pot for community grants; 30p to the prize fund; 17p to the lottery operator; and 3p on VAT which the council would claim back and use to fund the licence and advertising.

The basic points of the lottery are that it would run weekly, with tickets costing £1. People get six numbers, meaning the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 million to 1, compared to the National Lottery which is over 45 million to 1. The chance of winning any prize is around 50 to 1, compared to 100 to 1 for the National Lottery main draw.

To win a prize a player has to match the sequence of the digits as they are drawn, either at the beginning or end of their ticket number.

Prizes would be fixed amounts, but would not roll over. Matching six numbers would net a prize of £25,000, down to £5 for matching two numbers.

Setting up the lottery is expected to cost £10,000.

Data from the council suggests a ‘conservative’ estimate of the number of tickets sold a year would be 40,000, raising £20,000 for good causes.

If the recommendation passes the strategy group, the council will vote on approving it at its next full meeting.