RESIDENTS have turned their back on the borough council’s much trumpeted Redditch Community Lottery.
First year predictions for the number of gamblers have fallen way short with just 184 players, down from 198, out of a hoped for total of 682.
The lottery was launched in efforts to make the council more commercially minded.
The findings are detailed in a report to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee which met last night, Thursday, July 8.
The report also reveals that there have been no winners of the £25,000 jackpot prize in the 18 months the lottery has been running.
However it does say that so far 32 ‘good causes’ have signed up to benefit from the lottery with a further three applications currently being processed.
The more good causes back the scheme it is hoped the more their supporters and friends will buy lottery tickets.
The tickets cost £1 a week and consist of six numbers.
Each ticket can either support causes the council supports or a specific listed good cause.
Each £1 spent on the lottery sees 50 per cent going to good causes, with 10 per cent sent to a central fund of the borough council to cover costs and with the rest re-allocated to the town’s voluntary community sector (VCS) through the council’s grants programme.
Another 20 per cent goes towards prizes, with 17 per cent going to the firm that runs the lottery for the council – Gatherwell Ltd.
The remaining 3 per cent is for VAT, which the council can claim back.
In the 18 months of its operation, Redditch Community Lottery has generated a total of £25,171 from the 369 people who played it.
The amount of funding the council has received as part of its 10 per cent is £2,517.10.
It also received £4,129.50 from players choosing the community lottery fund as their ‘good cause’.
The amount generated for other nominated good causes is £8,456.00.
The remaining money is allocated to Gatherwell, prizes and VAT.
The report underlines that the pandemic may have affected the growth of the lottery and that a survey found that 75 per cent of good causes in the town said the lottery had helped to keep funds coming in during the pandemic.
A snapshot of monthly sums received by local good causes range from £59.50 for Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcome Refugees and £47.50 for Inspire Community Training £47.50 to £2.50 each for 1st Redditch Scout Group and Moons Moat Conservation Group.
