Yet another report has called for the relaxation of rules around society lotteries, this time warning that tougher restrictions could halve the amount returned by lotteries to good causes.

The Centre of Economic and Business Research (CEBR), commissioned by the Institute of Fundraising and Lotteries Council, will present a report to Parliament today warning that if government made good on proposals to further restrict society lotteries charities could lose up to half of the income they currently generate – now £155m.

It also argued that restricting the amount charities can spend on expenditure from 20 per cent to 15 per cent of total proceeds would close a third of society lotteries.

A toughening on expenditure limits was proposed by government last year but despite having announced an imminent Department for Culture Media and Sport consultation on society lottery regulation in December 2012, no such consultation has yet been launched. The CEBR report, however, describes the consultation as “forthcoming” and government has made assurances that it still intends to review the system.

The report, What have we got to lose, echoes arguments made by the IoF, Lotteries Council and nfpSynergy on the subject in the past. CEBR calls for government to relax the limits on society lottery prize draws which currently restrict small lotteries to top prizes of £25,000 and large ones to a maximum of £400,000. It also said that instead of toughening up the current 80:20 rule, which means that at least 20 per cent of a lottery turnover must be returned to good causes, 41 per cent of charities felt that relaxing this should be a top priority. Another demand of the report is to increase the £10m annual turnover limit on any single charity’s programme.

“If regulations were to be relaxed, the potential increase in society lottery-donated funds to good causes would, in all likelihood, complement rather than detract from those provided by the National Lottery,” the report concluded.

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF, said: “It’s clear that playing a lottery supporting a specific good cause is a popular way for the public to give money to charity, so we should do what we can to encourage it. We can do more to make it easier for charities to raise funds in this way and I hope ministers will read this report very carefully and act on its recommendations.”