Agenda item

Report of Director of Service Delivery.

Lead Cabinet member:  Councillor Alan Shuttleworth.

Director of service delivery, in consultation with lead cabinet member, given delegated authority to set up an Eastbourne local lottery in line with the proposals set out in report, including engagement of an external lottery manager and an on-line weekly draw of £1 tickets.

75.1 Councillor Freebody addressed the cabinet on his concerns at the possible impact a council run lottery could have upon existing local charity lotteries, asked about take-up levels of other council lotteries and for clarification about the type of lottery operation proposed.  He also asked if schemes such as this could be seen as encouraging gambling.  The chairman replied saying he believed the planned lottery would allow many smaller local charities the opportunity of participating in this type of fund raising.  He mentioned that Aylesbury Vale’s lottery currently benefited some 138 local causes and the number was growing.  He did not believe that the proposed lottery would encourage problem gambling.

75.2 Cabinet considered the report of the director of service delivery proposing the launch of an online Eastbourne local lottery to help fund discretionary support for community organisations and to enable good causes to raise funds directly.  A local authority was allowed to run a lottery to raise funds to cover anything for which it has the power to incur expenditure (for example, local community projects, arts centres or parks and leisure facilities) and must be licensed by the Gambling Commission under the Gambling Act 2005.

75.3 Due to the costs of distribution and sales the lottery would need to be operated online and the suggested model would operate at two levels:-

Eastbourne lottery – operating council-wide with profits generated distributed through existing mechanisms to local good causes. Players selecting this option would not specify a group to benefit from the proceeds and the funding would be distributed by the council to existing council funding commitments.

Specific Eastbourne good causes – this version would enable groups to ‘sign-up’ to take part in the lottery specifically raising the 50% share for their good cause.  By signing up they will have their own web page for the lottery helping them engage with players and raising income.  Players buying tickets through specific web pages would know that the profits were for that specific good cause.  This option removes a hurdle for groups who might struggle otherwise to take part in their own lotteries for example, holding licences and setting up the necessary infrastructure.  The proposed criteria to be used in deciding whether or not to allow organisations to become part of the lottery with given in appendix 1 to the report.

75.4 There were two options for the delivery of the lottery, either in-house or through an external lottery manager (ELM).  Based on the lack of in-house expertise the preferred option was to engage an ELM.  Based on the advice given in the report, it was proposed that the Eastbourne lottery would provide a weekly draw of £1tickets and two modes of operation – specific good cause or no specific good cause.

75.5 Resolved (key decision): That the director of service delivery, in consultation with the lead cabinet member, be given delegated authority to set up an Eastbourne local lottery in line with the proposals set out in the report, including the engagement of an external lottery manager and an on-line weekly draw of £1 tickets.