Sales sector news

National Lottery sales best in decade

2/6/2009
Sales of National Lottery tickets raised £25.8 million more for charities in 2008/09 than in the year before, which in turn could lead to more grant funding.

The Camelot Group raised more than £1.3 billion for good causes in the past year, the highest figure since 1999. The company says so far over 317,000 Good Causes awards have been made across the UK – the equivalent of 109 awards per postcode district.

The government will be looking to these results as proof that the economic downturn is not yet having an adverse effect on income for good causes. A spokesperson at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the 15 distributors of lottery funds could now be more ambitious when considering applications for grants.

Camelot has reported that 28p from every £1 spent on National Lottery tickets was given to charities and community projects. It attributes increased ticket sales to the introduction of new lottery games, a new website and upgrades to National Lottery terminals.

The results come in spite of slowing lottery sales in the wider European and US markets.