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Charity umbrella chief execs express support for Health Lottery decision

Fundraising | Jonathan Last | 23 Aug 2012

The NCVO and Institute of Fundraising have expressed support for the High Court's decision to dismiss the National Lottery operator’s claim that the Gambling Commission should not have given the Health Lottery its licence, but Acevo still backs Camelot.

Camelot yesterday lost the case in the High Court, with the Health Lottery declaring the decision a “victory” for society lotteries. Camelot will now appeal the ruling.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said: “NCVO maintains that having competition of lotteries may benefit the voluntary sector as it creates funding streams for a diverse range of causes. The Health Lottery is still in its infancy, making it difficult to judge its impact on overall sector funding for better or worse.”  

While giving his support to the decision, Sir Stuart did add that the Health Lottery should review the percentage of monies that it gives back to the voluntary sector.

“While the Health Lottery will be pleased at today’s ruling, it must now turn its attention to planning how to increase the proportion of funding it gives to charitable causes (currently 20 per cent), and we have called on the government to consult on this. Otherwise this risks setting a dangerously low precedent and could reduce sector funding during an extremely challenging time.”

John Hume, chief executive of People’s Health Trust, distributor of good causes money raised through the Health Lottery, said: “We welcome today’s decision which means that together with 51 community interest companies we can continue making grants to charities that are addressing some of the most deep rooted health inequalities across Great Britain.”

Institute of Fundraising chief executive Peter Lewis tweeted at a civilsociety.co.uk journalist yesterday that the decision “looks like more money to good causes to me”.

Bubb defends the National Lottery

Lewis remarked in the same tweet that at least one person will not be happy with the decision: Acevo chief executive Sir Stephen Bubb.

The monetary issue mentioned by Sir Stuart has made Sir Stephen a long-term vocal detractor of the Health Lottery. The 20p in the £1 it gives to charities compares unfavourably to the National Lottery’s 28p.

“Our fear has always been that the Health Lottery would reduce the amount of money going to charity by damaging the National Lottery, which gives a higher proportion of its revenue to good causes,” Bubb wrote on his blog late yesterday.

“We believed, as the Commons select committee has said, that this was the opposite of Parliament's intention, and that either loopholes in the law needed closing, or the Gambling Commission was not enforcing the law properly.

“The fact that the courts have ruled that the Gambling Commission was properly enforcing the law means that the law itself contains loopholes and these needs to be urgently closed.”

Sir Stephen continued by saying that he wishes the government to act immediately to change the law, in order to prevent further competitors to the National Lottery entering the market.

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Directory: Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) | Camelot | Health Lottery | Institute of Fundraising | National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Who's Who: Peter Lewis | Sir Stuart Etherington | Sir Stephen Bubb