A COUNCIL-run lottery with a ticket price of £1 and a weekly top prize of £25,000 has been recommended by West Somerset councillors to help support local community organisations and projects.
Members of the council’s scrutiny committee were told at their meeting yesterday (Thursday) that it was feared the next round of central government cuts would inevitably impact on community organisations.
And, the committee was told the council needed to explore new ways of raising income to help them.
Community and customer lead Cllr Dave Westcott said a lottery run jointly with Taunton Deane Borough Council had been considered for some time
All funds from the venture would provide benefits for local people and communities. The council would not benefit in any way
and would be among the pioneers of this form of fund-raising.
Community liaison manager Angela Summers said only five other councils had launched a lottery and it was planned to use a model similar to one being operated by Aylesbury Vale District Council which had already proved a success.
The online lottery’s £25,000 prize would not be shared or rolled over – an arrangement which would protect the lottery from financial difficulty.
The council currently gave over £37,000 to funding and support programmes and needed to generate income or make savings to offset cuts due by 2020.
The council planned to “buy in” the skills of an external lottery manager and had selected Gatherwell Ltd to run and market the project.
It was hoped that, apart from licensing and marketing costs, the lottery would be self-funding.
Both councils would pay half of the £3,000 set-up fee, £1,000 annual licensing and administration costs and £500 a year for marketing.
The lottery would operate through a dedicated website and tickets bought by online payment or direct debit, to keep operating costs at a minimum.
Both councils would need to apply to the Gambling Commission for a licence. The external lottery manager would be responsible for day-to-day running, processing new players, distributing prizes and providing recipient organisations with updates.
It was proposed to use the Australian Super 66 Lotto results for the six-digit winning numbers, drawn every Saturday.