LETTER: Charities among lottery winners

From Mr David Rigg

Sir: Your article "Lottery admits charities hit" (4 November) correctly points out comments I made during a speech to the Charities Aid Foundation conference that "the jury was still out" on the National Lottery's long-term impact on charities.

However, you failed to report my comments to the effect that a number of charities have seen their incomes rise since the introduction of the National Lottery. UK Charity Lotteries, the largest operator of scratch cards in the UK before the National Lottery arrived, has seen its sales increase fivefold.

A number of new charity scratch card operations have been successfully launched. The Cancer Research Campaign has seen an increase of 23 per cent in its income despite the competing attraction of the National Lottery for the last five months of that year. Oxfam has seen an increase of 54 per cent from its donations and appeals.

An independent report to be issued later this week shows that charitable income across a broad range of charities surveyed rose 2.3 per cent in the period April to June 1995 compared with the corresponding period the previous year. Indeed, the charities in that survey which use lotteries as a form of fund-raising have seen their income from that source rise by 71.3 per cent.

There may well be some charities that have clearly been losing out, but it is by no means a one-way street.

Yours faithfully,

David Rigg

Director of Communication

Camelot

London, SW1

6 November