Council proposes Eastbourne lottery with £20,000 prize

The possiblity of launching an online lottery to help fund community causes will be discussed at Eastbourne Borough Council’s next cabinet meeting (on Wednesday, February 8).

Tickets are expected to cost £1 and there is £20,000 up for grabs for winners.

Other prizes proposed are £1,000, £100 and £10.

Players will be able to choose six numbers or have them selected randomly, and to win the jackpot will have to match both the numbers and sequence drawn.

The local lottery will aim to help good causes by contributing a proposed 60 per cent of its proceeds to charities and local societies.

As budgets come under increasing pressure, the council says this should take the strain off community grants budgets, and future contributions from the lottery could be used to reduce its expenditure on grants without reducing the level of funds allocated through its Community Grants programme.

There are set-up costs for the proposal in the region of £5,000, plus annual licence fees of £1,000 a year.

Additional costs of up to £3,000 may also be incurred in the first year for marketing of the local lottery scheme.

Local lotteries are now being run by several councils, including Aylesbury Vale, Portsmouth and Mendip, and are being considered by several others.

Being proposed is a ‘society lottery’, which is a lottery promoted for the benefit of a non-commercial society.

Regulated by the Gambling Act 2015, they have long been a way for smaller organisations to raise income.

For more information, visit www.democracy.eastbourne.gov.uk