Wycombe Lottery to support local good causes
Wycombe District Council is to launch an online community lottery to benefit good causes.
The first tickets for the new ‘Wycombe Lottery’ will go on sale in June 2017. Wycombe Lotto tickets will cost £1 each with 60p going towards local good causes, more than double the 28p in the pound which the National Lottery passes on from its ticket sales.
Prize draws for the new Wycombe Lotto will be held weekly with a jackpot of £25,000 for a matching sequence of six numbers. Additionally there will be other cash prizes of £2,000, £250, £25 or three free tickets.
Local good causes will be able to join the scheme and then set up and promote their own dedicated Wycombe Lotto webpage to raise funds. When people buy Wycombe Lotto tickets directly through their preferred local cause, 50p in every pound spent by players using this method will go directly to that good cause. A further 10p in every pound will go into a general Community Chest fund to support a wider range of good causes. The remaining 40p in each £1 will be put towards prizes, operating costs and VAT.
Players who do not wish to support a specific cause will still be able to play in the Wycombe Lotto with 60p of their ticket price going into the general Community Chest good causes fund. Wycombe District Council will then distribute the money between all the good causes registered with them to participate in Wycombe Lotto.
Karen Satterford, Chief Executive Officer at Wycombe District Council said: ‘Wycombe Lotto is an innovative way to raise much needed additional money to help local organisations to continue to do great work in our local communities. Wycombe Lotto will give people the chance to support local causes as well as the chance to win a great cash prize every week.
We are still committed to continuing our support groups through our grants programme but this will be an extra way of spreading the benefit to many more groups across Wycombe District.
With our budgets under increasing pressure from central government cuts, and local good causes also needing an extra funding boost, this is a win win approach for everyone.’
A handful of councils across the country are now running local lotteries including Aylesbury Vale, Portsmouth and Corby. Several others are looking to follow in Wycombe District’s footsteps in the near future.
During the next few months Wycombe District Council will be getting the ball rolling by working with local good causes and making preparations for tickets to go on sale in June 2017. Tickets will be sold by direct debit rather than through retail outlets. The first prize draw will take place in July 2017 with prize draws then following every week.
If you work or volunteer for a local good cause and you’re interested in finding out more, please email [email protected].
