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Over 10 billion Euros could be raised every year...

...to support the irreplaceable work done by NGOs in the EU if all 27 Member States allowed national charity lotteries.

Local, national and international charities in a number of EU Member States already benefit from revenues generated by privately operated charity lotteries. Although there are differences in the way they operate, these charity lotteries share the following characteristics:

• They are privately operated, with a license from the national government;
• Fundraising for NGOs is their principal aim;
• They donate a substantial part of their income to their beneficiaries and make no private profits;
• Their funds are distributed by an independent body without political interference.
  

GREEN PAPER

On March 24 the European Commission published a Green paper on on-line gambling in the internal market. The members of ACLEU are pleased to notice that the Commission incorporates revenues from games of chance into its consultation by dedicating some questions of the questionnaire to ‘financing of benevolent and public interest activities’. However, this important positive aspect of games of chance is addressed in the Green paper more from a technical rather than a political, economic or cultural perspective. ACLEU would like to have seen more recognition of the importance of these distributions for civil society.

ACLEU has contributed to the consultation by submitting answers to some of the questions in the questionnaire of the Green paper and by contributing to a workshop organized by the European Commission. Even though our members are offline charity lotteries (though making use of e-commerce activities by selling tickets online), many issues addressed in the Green paper on online gambling affect the offline sector as well. For example, cannibalization effects that could arise when participants of charity lotteries choose large prize payouts from commercial online operators over supporting charities.