A few days ago Parliaments Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report which should have been entitled ‘The future of lottery funding’ however it was actually called ‘The future of the national lottery’. The report which can be found here makes it abundantly clear that when the Gambling Commission under the oversight of the Department for Culture Media and Sport (now known as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) reviewed and updated the contract which then existed with Camelot for the running of the national lottery, that they made some fundamental changes to the contract which potentially will destroy the only reason why many people are willing to support the lottery, at least in moral terms. From its outset many groups were opposed to the establishment of a Government run Lottery which was a project that will always bear John Majors signature. However his argument was that it would enable both the Government and good causes (such as charities, sports bodies, the Arts etc) to benefit from the gambling activity of many people who already had plenty of alternative ways of wasting their money. He stated it was “the most successful innovation of any government for years”.

If John Major is still a supporter of the Lottery, let us hope he will get a chance to stand up and challenge Jeremy Hunt for his part in destroying the positive elements of the scheme. The third licence for running the Lottery was agreed between the Government and Camelot in 2009 with a period of 10 years on the agreement. This was then renegotiated in March 2012 when Jeremy Hunt was the Minister for DCMS and as part of this change the contract was extended from 2019 to 2023 but one of the substantial changes was that the new contract denied future Governments the opportunity to renegotiate the contract in the way that the original scheme had allowed. Fundamentally this is the biggest problems we face as all other problems which are also present could have been dealt with had there been a break clause included which would allow for changes to be made.

The issues which the PAC have identified in the way in which the Lottery is now run are that Camelot are not doing enough to address gambling habits in individuals and due to the way in which the scratch cards are now dominating the lottery provision, the profits gained by Camelot have increased by 122% between 2009/10 and 2016/17 whereas the increase for good causes over the same period has increased by only 2%, and in the last year of the figures, there was a 15% drop in this income. The PAC has concluded that future commitment for charities, the Arts and Sports are all at risk because the projected growth in the lottery will not be matched by a comparable growth in funds for good causes. Yet the organisations that fund these good causes have all been working on data that is out of date and is now deeply damaged. The statement from the PAC includes the following sentence:

“Lessons must be learned from the renegotiation of Camelot’s licence in 2012, which was too generous to the provider and too inflexible to protect the interests of grant recipients.”

Allowing Governments whose own period in office is much shorter than the 11 years allowed by Jeremy Hunt for this contract to learn lessons is of course important. However ensuring funding for charities, the Arts and Sports seems a bit more important than persuading Jeremy Hunt to learn some lessons! Let us hope that the Government will ensure that they provide funding to replace the sums lost thanks to the negotiations which took place under Mr Hunts watchful gaze!