Facing Decline in Popularity, National Lottery Gets a Facelift
Department of Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell on July 3 announced the publication of a National Lottery decision document that contains her plan to widen the appeal of the lottery, which is operated by Camelot.
Jowell's ideas for the lottery include allowing the public to vote on how the proceeds from it are used as well as breaking up the operation of different lottery games among several different companies.
The plan also calls for a single brand on all lottery-funded projects and a National Lottery Day so that the public can be made aware of the ways in which the money spent on lottery tickets is used to fund social projects.
"Because a public which can't see how the lottery has benefited them, and don't understand how or why grant decisions are made, is a public that won't buy tickets," Jowell said. "If they don't buy tickets we are limited in the good causes we benefit. That simple vicious cycle is the absolute nub of the problem we face. And it makes clear what the solution must be."
She noted that the proceeds from the lottery have contributed much during its seven-year history to several community initiatives, including the Eden Project, Baltic Mill, Angel of the North and the Commonwealth Games.
"But we don't get better just by celebrating what we have achieved, we need to move on," Jowell said. "Seven years from when the lottery started was a good time to take stock, to analyze what was working well and what was not. The review I announced in July last year was set up to do just that."
Other new plans for the lottery include setting up a Young People's Fund with an initial £200 million. The fund will distribute money to children's and young people's groups. Also, there will be a "micro-grants" scheme that will allow people to apply for grants under £500 and have a decision made quickly.
Accompanying news about the changes in store for the lottery is survey results from ORC International, a consulting firm. The study found that lottery usage is the most popular form of gambling in the United Kingdom by a large margin. However, the game was played by 61 percent of adults in 2002, compared to 75 percent of adults in 1998. The survey also found that only 32 percent of adults play the midweek lottery game, which amounts to a 10 percent decrease during the last year.
New Appointments at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
Ron Barbaro has been appointed the new chairman of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. Stanley Sadinsky will serve as the new chairman. Both announcements were made June 25 by Ontario Attorney General Norman Sterling.
Barbaro had been chairman of the Ontario Casino Corp. and the Ontario Lottery Corp. when those two organizations combined in April 2000 and he was appointed as the leader of the joined group. Sadinsky is a practicing lawyer in Kingston, Ontario who specializes in gaming law. He has been the chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission for the last nine years.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. oversees the province's lotteries, charity casinos, commercial casinos and slot machines at racetracks.
Zamarripa Gets Lifetime Achievement Award
Mark Zamarripa, director of the Colorado Lottery and president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, has been given the 2003 Major Peter J. O'Connell Lottery Lifetime Achievement Award by the Public Gaming Research Institute.
Zamarripa began his lottery career as an administrative assistant to the Colorado Lottery in 1982. He became the lottery's director in 1994.
Loto-Quebec Profits Up
Loto-Quebec announced in June 18 that its year-end consolidated earnings as of March 31 were CA $3.749 billion, representing an increase of 2.4 percent over last year. Net income was CA $1.446 billion, a decline of 0.2 percent from last year.
The lottery's three casinos achieved combined revenue of CA $747.5 million, a 2.8 percent increase from last year. The video lottery section of the group pulled in CA $1.077 billion, up 0.9 percent from last year, a smaller increase than it has experienced in the last several years.