It was a pleasure to lead yesterday’s debate in the Scottish Parliament calling for the UK Government to end the £50 million cap on annual charity lottery sales.
This would cost taxpayers not a single penny while delivering an extra £175 million for charities over the next five years.
Charity lotteries are the only form of charity fundraising – and the only form of gambling product - subject to annual caps on sales, placing an unnecessary ceiling on the amount raised for good causes.
It’s disgraceful and astonishing that good causes providing services to some of society’s most vulnerable people will lose out on essential funding due to outdated and nonsensical regulation.
Charities like the Largs-based Ellen McArthur Cancer Trust rely on long-term, multi-million pound annual funding awards from People’s Postcode Lottery funding.
Local organisations like Millport Town Hall, COAST - Community of Arran Seabed Trust, The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety, and the Ayrshire Community Trust have benefited from People’s Postcode Lottery grants.
The cap significantly impacts the ability of lotteries to increase the amount of funding provided to charities, while demand for their services has significantly increased amidst the Westminster cost of living crisis and aftermath of the pandemic.
The UK government has a real chance to make a difference to charities by removing the charity lottery annual sales limit and it should act now.
