Lifting the cap: the fight to boost charity lottery fundraising

In January of this year, MPs debated a Private Members’ bill, the aptly named Monetary Limits for Lotteries Bill, on whether to remove “outdated” sales caps limits for charity lottery fundraising. 

What does this mean? 

Currently, charities are capped at raising a maximum of £50M from lottery fundraising, regulated under the 2005 Gambling Act, despite lotteries generating more than £420M a year for charities. Those in favour of removing the cap argue that it does not make sense to still have this cap in place when charities are struggling to raise funds within this difficult economic climate. Especially when all other gambling products are not subject to limits on ticket sales. 

The MP who introduced this members’ bill, Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem MP for North East Fife, stated the following: 

Charity lotteries play a vital role in supporting charities large and small across Britain, yet they are subject to limits on their sales, which ties them up in red tape, and restricts their effectiveness. These limits have no obvious purpose and removing them would cost the Treasury nothing, yet it will help boost charities at a time when they face a difficult fundraising environment.

It is bizarre that every other type of gambling product has no limit on sales, yet the product that does so much good for society through supporting our charities is capped.

She has received support from others in the sector such as The People’s Postcode Lottery, backed by more than 100 charities, who believe it has the potential to release an additional £175M for charities over the next 5 years. 

Clare Govier, managing director of People’s Postcode Lottery, argued the following: 

The charity lottery sales limits are causing increasing difficulties for charity lottery fundraising at a time when charities need these vital funds to respond to the impact of the cost of living crisis. We welcome Wendy Chamberlain bringing forward this bill and urge MPs across parliament to support it.

The Bill has cross-party support and has pressed the government to pass the bill to remove these caps and ultimately help charities fundraising efforts during this challenging economic period. 

The Minister for Sport, Media, Civil Society and Youth responded a few days later and confirmed the government will make its stance on removing these caps known by the summer recess, following it receiving final research on the topic. 

With this Bill only currently in its second reading, there is still a long way to go but this piece of legislation could have a huge impact for charity fundraising if it was to pass. 

Watch this space…

If you would like to chat to us about your lottery fundraising programmes, please contact helloDTV@dtvgroup.co.uk

Bio

Ross is a producer at DTV with over 5 years of experience in the industry. Having started his career in the media agency space, he moved over to the creative fundraising sector, working with charities such as Age UK, Save the Children, Crisis and WaterAid to name a few. Today, Ross works with a range of charities in the international development sphere, helping project manage live campaigns as well as collaborating closely with clients to ensure they receive the best possible service.