Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 5 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 1

Written Answers. - National Lottery.

Kathleen Lynch

Ceist:

78 Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for Finance the amount of unclaimed national lottery prize money in each of the years from 1990 to 1995; the plans, if any, he has to amend the legislation in order to provide for unclaimed prize money being diverted into a beneficial fund rather than being rediverted back into the national lottery fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20290/96]

Minister for Finance (Mr Quinn)

Unclaimed prize money at the end of each of the years 1990 to 1995 was as follows:

	£m
1990	1.60
1991	2.15
1992	2.35
1993	3.99
1994	4.91
1995	4.85

It would not, in fact, be necessary to amend the National Lottery Act, 1986, to allow for unclaimed prize money to be allocated to a beneficiary fund as suggested by the Deputy. The provisions in relation to unclaimed prizes are contained in the rules of the lottery which are made by me as Minister for Finance.

For the following reasons, I do not propose to amend the rules along the lines suggested by the Deputy. The rules are drawn up to achieve an appropriate balance between turnover allocated towards prizes and towards the national lottery surplus which supports the beneficiary fund. To divert moneys originally allocated for prizes would upset this balance and could also tend to undermine support for the games by players. The national lottery company considers that players generally tend to take the view that unclaimed prizes should be made available for distribution as future prizes.

Unclaimed prizes are used, for example, to fund lotto superjackpots, for special draws associated with scratch card games and as prize supplements to certain scratch card games. These uses stimulate player interest in the games.