Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 31 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 8

Adjournment Debate. - National Lottery Jackpots.

Mr. Crawford

I ask the Minister for Finance to make whatever changes are necessary in the rules of the national lottery to avoid a position similar to last Saturday, when £1 million was added to an already obscenely large jackpot of £3.8 million, which has since risen to £7 million. Many small clubs and organisations are in the extremely difficult position of having to raise funds against a major national body. On the bank holiday, the national lottery unnecessarily added £1 million to its prize fund. If the jackpot had been £500,000 one could have excused the addition of extra money to encourage punters, but when it was £3.826 million there was no excuse.

A few weeks ago many clubs and community groups were looking forward to support from the small sports allocations. County Monaghan received the massive sum of £23,000; four clubs benefited and many others were disappointed. If the Minister of State responsible for sport had been given £1 million to spread nationally, at least four more clubs in Monaghan could have been supported.

The Phoenix leisure centre in Carrickmacross has been under construction for donkeys' years. It received two small national lottery allocations but it is a white elephant, in a town which is trying to do well in the Tidy Towns competition and provide sports facilities for its young people. What would £250,000 — one quarter of the extra £1 million — have meant for that centre? Sister celine has ten flats and a number of houses to provide shelter for the homeless in Castleblayney. When she looks for national lottery funds there are always reasons she does not meet the criteria. Yet the national lottery adds £1 million to the already inflated jackpot. What difference would it make to win £4.82 million as opposed to £3.82 million? The extra £1 million would not make much difference to the winner but it could make a difference to many projects.

Other groups try to raise funds through ticket sales. Rehab, for example, provides an excellent service in giving training to the handicapped and others, but its lottery is capped. Will the Minister of State ask the Minister for Finance to remove the cap from the other charities which need the freedom to give proper prize money to fund their much needed projects? Perhaps she could do so herself, which would be all the better. Representatives of Rehab and many other organisations try to sell lottery or raffle tickets but they must compete against the national lottery. We want a common sense approach but there is none at present.

This coming weekend, many people will spend money from social welfare and other sources which is needed for their families, with the idea that the jackpot will solve their problems. I hope that whoever wins the £7 million gives at least some of it to worthy causes and makes proper use of the rest of it does not do him or her any harm.

Minister of State at the Department of Finance (Mrs. Doyle)

The national lottery was established to raise money for a large number of socially desirable programmes in areas such as youth and sport, the arts, health and welfare and the Irish language. The Government is anxious to ensure the ongoing viability of the national lottery to safeguard this important source of income and the projects assisted by lottery moneys. National lottery funded expenditure will amount to approximately £88 million in the current year.

Research carried out by the national lottery company has shown that occasional large jackpots are popular with players. They help to sustain player interest in lotto and encourage new players to participate. They thus help to ensure the ongoing success of the game.

Approximately one third of lottery turnover goes directly to the beneficiary fund. Occasional large jackpots lead to increased sales and these sales are ultimately reflected in the resources available for the many community, sporting and other groups which are in receipt of lottery funds. Accordingly, any increased buoyancy in lottery sales has an impact also on the returns to the community from the beneficiary fund. For the current roll-over sequence the national lottery has had total sales up to yesterday Wednesday, 30 October of £19.7 million. This sequence alone will have added more than £6 million to the beneficiary fund.

The national lottery, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, supplements the natural jackpot at regular intervals throughout the year in a number of ways, including adding £1 million to the jackpot or offering a free second draw with a total prize fund of £1 million. This variety adds to the appeal of the game. The enhanced jackpots are offered for the main bank holiday weekends.

In regard to the £1 million added to the jackpot last Saturday, owing to the scheduling constraints of advertising and other practical considerations it is necessary for the national lottery company to arrange for publicity for the enhanced jackpots before the results of the draw on the Wednesday immediately preceding the holiday draw are known. In the case of the enhanced jackpot on Saturday, 26 October posters were designed, distributed and on display in national lottery retail outlets from Monday, 21 October. It would have been impractical to inform players efficiently of the details of the Saturday draw if the lottery company had to wait until after the results of the Wednesday draw were known. It may be of interest to Deputies to know that from a statistical point of view there was a 75 per cent chance of finding a winner for the draw on Wednesday, 23 October, the draw immediately preceding the addition of the £1 million.

It may be that another underlying issue of concern to the Deputy is the question of the desirability of capping the jackpot. There is essentially no difference between a roll-over sequence producing a large jackpot and the same jackpot being produced as a result of the addition of £1 million for a holiday weekend. Roll-overs and super jackpots are elements of the 6/42 lotto game. The question of capping the jackpot has been considered from time to time. It is important to appreciate that the lotto game is by its nature jackpot driven. While a £6 million jackpot represents a significant amount of money, universal lottery experience proves that the bigger the size of the jackpot the greater the number of players. In the run up to the previous record jackpot five weeks ago the national lottery had an estimated 1.7 million players for a £3.5 million jackpot. To put a cap or ceiling on the size of lotto jackpots would run the risk of undermining public interest in participation and could well jeopardise the long-term success of the game. There is little doubt that such a policy would lead to significantly lower sales and a consequently reduced amount available for the beneficiary funds.

I assure the Deputy that the national lottery reviews the prize structure of the lotto game on an ongoing basis in the light of experience, market research on player preferences and public opinion generally. The Deputy's views have been conveyed by me to the company. In view of the position as outlined however I do not think it would be appropriate for me to request the national lottery company to change the existing practice in regard to occasional supplements to the lotto jackpots or to seek to cap the jackpot.

On the point referred to by the Deputy relating to the capping of other charitable lotteries, I would draw his attention to the recent debate in this House on that matter and the amount received from the beneficiary fund in County Monaghan, a matter which prefixed the Deputy's remarks. The Minister for Finance is about to issue clearer, more transparent guidelines on applying for and allocating of funds under the lottery rules — an announcement was made in that regard in recent days. That should help clarify the basis of success in some cases and lack of success in others in terms of applying for money from the beneficiary fund.