Report Set to Rock Lottery World

An influential House of Commons committee is set to recommend that the Lottery should be nationalised. Barbara Bloomfield reports.

Having seen the way that state Lotteries operate in America, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is likely to recommend this week that a state run system be adopted here.

Committee member, Claire Ward, MP told Lottery Monitor she could not comment until the report was published. However, she confirmed that the committee had been most impressed by the American system which operates in 37 states. The report will also call for greater openness on the part of the National Lottery Commission.

Questioning the Culture Secretary last month, Derek Wyatt MP, said: “It seems to me that is now the only solution left. If you want the best product, the Government should own it and run it and break up the bits.”

Mr. Smith replied that he would “remain agnostic” on the subject, adding: “It has been said to me by quite a number of people now that an option could be to see a Lottery that is effectively owned by the nation through the Government, but that each service for the running of that Lottery is contracted out to different suppliers. That is obviously a model which works in some other parts of the world.”

The matter would be considered as part of wider review of the licensing process. But Mr. Smith repeated that the Dome appeared to give ammunition to those who said it was not the business of government to run such enterprises. He also felt the current system enables individual MPs who have a particular project that they wish to support to do so.

“It enables them to argue vigorously on behalf of their constituents. It means, though, that they cannot say, ‘I have a direct line to the Minister and therefore I know I can get this project approved.’ It does mean that the project will be assessed on impartial criteria.”

The Committee is also keen to see ‘more openness’ in the workings and meetings of the National Lottery Commission. They would like to see a livelier range of Lottery tickets available, with special Christmas packs, gift tags and special deals, or specially printed tickets aimed at groups like footballers or individual charities.

The Committee’s report, due this week, could be influential. Its Chairman, Gerald Kaufman, engineered a sea-change in attitudes to the Lottery when a previous report heavily criticised the awarding of many millions to the Royal Opera House.

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