Good causes to benefit as lottery is launched - The Worcester Observer

Good causes to benefit as lottery is launched

Worcester Editorial 28th Mar, 2019   0

MAYOR of Worcester Coun Jabba Riaz has welcomed the launch of the city’s community lottery and hailed the involvement of a host of charities and good causes across Worcester.

A 32GB Apple iPad will also be on offer to players who enter the first draw on April 27 and speaking at the launch of the lottery on Monday (March 25), Coun Riaz hailed the scheme as an exciting fun way for city residents to support their favourite local good cause.

“The great thing about this new lottery is that players can choose exactly which good cause they want to support when they sign up,” he said.

“And if they’re not sure who to play for, they can back the community fund, which the City Council will distribute to good causes.”




Good causes who have already registered to benefit from the Worcester Community Lottery include youth clubs, sports clubs, arts organisations and medical charities. And more are coming on board all the time.

Crossroads Caring for Carers was the first good cause to sign up for Worcester Community Lottery.


Care manager Helen Simmons said: “Crossroads Caring for Carers is here to improve the lives of carers by giving them a break from caring. Worcester Community Lottery is a great way of encouraging support for the important work that we do for city carers. We’re supporting it in every way we can and are hoping it will prove to be a huge success.”

Each good cause has a dedicated page on the website and receives 50 per cent of every £1 ticket sold via that page.

The money is paid directly to them each month. The good causes also benefit from the lottery’s community fund –which the City Council distributes on an annual basis.

Good causes do not have to pay to sign up for the Worcester Community Lottery and they are provided with free marketing materials to promote the lottery to their supporters.

To register as a good cause with the Worcester Community Lottery, organisations need to meet a range of criteria, including being not-for-profit and provide community activities or services to the benefit of Worcester residents

Council chiefs have brought in Gatherwell Ltd to operate the lottery. The company already runs successful draws for Aylesbury, Portsmouth, Melton Mowbray, Gloucester and around 50 other councils across the UK.

Worcester Community Lottery has been approved by the Gambling Commission and will be run as a ‘low risk’ model that will not encourage gambling.

Players will only be able to take part by signing up in advance, there will be no ‘instant reward’ and the prizes are relatively small. The marketing of the scheme will focus mainly on the potential for supporting local voluntary, charity and community groups.

Visit www.worcesterlottery.org for more.

How does it work?

After registering, players will be asked to choose a local good cause to benefit from their ticket purchase or to opt to support the community fund – which the City Council will distribute to good causes.

Tickets will cost £1 each, which will be divided as follows:

· 60p to good causes (50p to the player’s chosen good cause / 10p to the community fund)

· 20p to the prize fund

· 16p to the lottery management company for administration and management

· 4p VAT.

Each ticket will consist of six numbers and each number will be between 0 and 9. Each week’s draw will see a six-digit winning combination picked.

Prizes will be given to players with tickets that match the first or last two-six numbers from the winning combination. Match all six in order to win the top prize.

All players have a one-in-50 chance of winning a prize. The prize breakdown is:

· Match first or last two in order – three free tickets

· Match first or last three in order – £25

· Match first or last four in order – £250

· Match first or last five in order – £2,000

· Match six in order – £25,000

The draw results and winners will be announced every Saturday at 8pm, with the first draw on April 27.

Results will be posted at www.worcesterlottery.org , on Facebook at Worcester-Community-Lottery and on Twitter at @WorcesterLotto. Winners will be contacted directly.

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