Charity lotteries help state monopolies in Europe thrive

ACLEU, the Association of Charity Lotteries in Europe, has shared the findings of a new report which measures the impact that charity lotteries have on state lottery monopolies across Europe. The report was conducted by Regulus Partners, and it looked at a total of 12 jurisdictions on the continent, taking into consideration the legal makeup of the lottery industry in each country.

ACLEU President Eva Struving noted that the association’s members raised €1bn annually across Europe and contributed to various charitable causes. The latest report has focused on debunking a common misunderstanding about the operation of charity lotteries in markets where there are state monopolies or private companies.

For a while, it has been said, Struving explained, that charity lotteries in fact encroached on the operational results of mainstream lotteries. The "Charity Lotteries and the European lottery market: impact assessment" report has dug deep into the impact charity lotteries have had on the overall lottery market and state lotteries in each of the examined jurisdictions to establish something else.

There were three main groups of jurisdictions explored in the report, to name state lottery monopolies that co-existed with licensed charity lotteries in jurisdictions such as the UK, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. Another group was jurisdictions that had state monopolies with limited charity lotteries that are given a "special status" in places such as Spain, Ireland, and Norway.

Finally, there was a third group of examined jurisdictions which were defined as countries where lottery markets operated without national charity lotteries, particularly in places such as France, Denmark, Portugal, Finland, and Italy.

The report concluded that the existence of charitable lotteries in either nationwide or limited "special" capacity had no ill bearing on the outcome of operational results for the mainstream sector, represented by state monopolies or other private operators. In fact, the report established that just the opposite was the case.

Charitable lotteries were associated with overall better performance for state monopolies as they were linked to more awareness about lottery products in the first place. Struving welcomed the findings of the report and said that it should serve as a good starting point for all stakeholders who are interested in regulating and steering the industry. Struving said:

"We hope this report will help politicians, policymakers, and charities to fully appreciate the added value that charity lotteries bring, and to understand some of the dynamics facing the wider lotteries sector."

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