UK government rejects lottery update request

The government has refused to provide weekly updates on lottery sales to organisations that distribute proceeds to good causes.

UK.- The UK government has rejected a request to provide National Lottery ticket sales information to organisations that redistribute its winnings to good causes. Despite recommendations to report said data in order to get them to meet funding commitments, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport disagreed and denied the petition.

“The department does not receive this level of granular data from the Gambling Commission and questions the added value it would bring,” DCMS’ response said and added: “Sales vary week by week due to a diverse range of factors, in particular, whether there have been any rollover jackpots, limiting the robustness of any conclusions regarding trends that could be drawn on a week by week basis.”

According to an April Public Accounts Committee report, distributors failed to meet funding commitments as people turned to scratch cards and sales declined. Said downturn affected the plannning of redistribution and that’s why they made the -failed- request.

“The department confidently expects that the commission will take account of experiences of the third licence when designing the next to deliver a strong National Lottery beyond 2023,” the DCMS said.