Just the Ticket

Public attitudes towards the regulation of

charity lotteries
Introduction

This is the report on new research, commissioned and carried out by nfpSynergy with
the support of the Lotteries Council, into public attitudes towards charity (society)
lotteries. It was carried out in February 2015 and broadly repeats research first carried
out by nfpSynergy in 2011. It is designed to contribute to the DCMS consultation into
society lotteries, which closes in early March 2015.
While there are many charities, organisations and individuals with strong views, we
wanted to find out how the public view the regulation of lotteries. In particular, we
wanted to understand how they see the regulation of charity lotteries in the context of
the National Lottery, and how those attitudes might be affected by giving or lottery
playing habits.

w: www.nfpSynergy.net t: 020 7426 8888 e: insight@nfpsynergy.net

The headline findings are as follows:

Just 9% of the public think that there should be laws and regulations to make it
harder for charity lotteries to compete with the National Lottery
Just 8% think that there should be laws and regulations which stop any charity
lotteries from raising as much money as the National Lottery does. 74% said
there shouldnt and the rest were unsure
A sizeable 22% of the public think that the size of charity lottery prizes should be
capped
An even larger section of the public, 37%, think that the size of National Lottery
prizes should be capped falling to just 36% for those that actually play the
National Lottery
72% of the public do not think that the number of tickets in a charity lottery
should be capped
When asked whether playing a charity lottery would make them less likely to
give, 18% said they thought it might, while 63% said it wouldnt
66% of the public said they had bought a National Lottery ticket in the last
month, while 15% said they had bought a charity lottery ticket in the same
period
71% said they had donated to charity in the last three months

Attitudes towards regulations restricting charity lotteries

One of the central arguments for the burden of regulation on society lotteries (turnover
caps, prizes caps and the like) is to stop charity lotteries from competing with the
National Lottery.
Chart 1 shows the levels of agreement with the idea that there should be laws and
policies to prevent charity lotteries competing with the National Lottery. Just 9% agree
that there should laws and policies which stop competition, and 63% say there shouldnt
be. 29% are not sure.
Looking at the demographic breakdown of these attitudes in Chart 1, the blue yes bar
is fairly even across gender, social class, giving habits and lottery playing habits. It is
only really age where we see a variation; 18% of people aged 18-24 agree there should
be laws and regulations to make competition with the National Lottery harder, whereas
just 3% of 55-64 year olds feel that way.

Chart 1: Do you think that there should be laws and

regulations to make it harder for charity lotteries to
compete with the National Lottery?

100%

90%

29%

26%

31%

17%

24%
33%

80%

27%

33% 35% 33%

25% 23% 23%

25%
37%
Not sure

70%
60%

No
50%
40%

63%

63%

68%
62%

75%
57%

63%

49%

66%

50% 55% 70% 74% 71%

54%

Yes

30%
20%
10%

9%

11%

Total

Male

0%

7%

8%

10%

9%

8%

Female

ABC1

C2DE

Play
Nat
Lott

Play
Char
Lott

18% 15%
12%
16-24

25-34

35-44

5%

3%

45-54

55-64

9%

6%
65+

9%

Recent Non
charity donor
donor

Do you think that there should be laws and regulations to make it harder for charity lotteries to compete with the
National Lottery?

Base: 1,000 adults 16+, Britain.

Source: Research Now For nfpSynergy -25 February 2015

Chart 2 shows a more specific question, with the public asked whether laws and
regulations were needed to prevent charities raising as much money as the National
Lottery. Just 8% said yes, with 74% saying no.
Chart 2: 74% opposed to laws and regulations stopping any other
lotteries raising as much as the National Lottery
100%
90%

18%

16% 20%

16%

20%

16%

9%

15%

22% 22%

17%

12%

18%

16%

22%

80%

Not sure

70%
60%

No
50%

74%

74%

40%

74%

77% 71%

75%

81%

69%
65%

69% 79%

84%

78%

76%

71%
Yes

30%
20%
10%

8%

9%

Total

Male

0%

6%

7%

9%

9%

10%

Female

ABC1

C2DE

Play
Nat
Lott

Play
Char
Lott

16% 13%
16-24

25-34

9%
35-44

4%

4%

4%

45-54

55-64

65+

8%

7%

Recent Non
charity donor
donor

Do you think that there should be laws and regulations which stop any charity lotteries from raising as much
money as the National Lottery does?

Base: 1,000 adults 16+, Britain.

Source: Research Now For nfpSynergy -25 February 2015

Restrictions on the size of prizes

Alongside the general regulatory suppression of charity lotteries, there are two specific
areas we thought the public might have a view on: the size of prizes and the size of
individual charity lotteries.
We asked two questions about the capping of the size of prizes: one about charity
lotteries prizes, one about National Lottery prizes. The majority were against capping in
both cases. However, as Chart 3 shows, 22% were in favour of capping charity lottery
prizes, but a much larger 37% wanted National Lottery prizes capped.
Chart 3: Far more want National Lottery prizes capped compared to
charity lotteries
60%
56%

50%
46%

40%

37%

46%

39%

38%

36%

35%

29%
24%
21%

Yes cap
charity
prizes

35%

30%

22%

45%

24%

22%

26%
20%

20%
16%

28%

24%

24%
18%

16%

Yes Nat
Lott
prizes

24%
18%

10%

0%
Total

Male

Female

Play
Nat Lott

Play
Char
Lott

16-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

65+

Recent
charity
donor

Non
donor

Do you think that the size of the prizes in charity lotteries should be capped? and Do you think that the size of the
prizes in the National Lottery should be capped?

Base: 1,000 adults 16+, Britain.

Source: Research Now For nfpSynergy -25 February 2015

The demographics of these answers were also worthy of note, with self-interest playing
a part. Those who played the National Lottery were more likely to want charity lottery
prizes capped, while those who played charity lotteries were more likely to want National
Lottery prizes capped!
Age was probably the biggest determinant of attitude towards capping. Young people
(under 35s) were the least likely to want capping of prizes in either lottery (down to just
24% for 16-24 year olds who wanted the National Lottery prizes to be capped lower
than National Lottery players as a whole). Those over 55 were the most likely to want
capping up 56% of over the over 65s want National Lottery prizes to be capped.
Despite these variations, the important point is that the majority did not want either
charity or National Lottery prizes to be capped, with nearly three times as many
opposing charity lottery prize capping as supporting it.

Capping of the number of tickets sold

Charities are restricted in the size of individual lottery that they can operate, so we
wanted to ask the public if they support this approach. Chart 4 shows the responses to
the question we asked about this.
Chart 4: very few think the number of tickets sold by an individual
charity lottery should be capped
100%
90%

17%

15%

19%

15%

19%

15% 10%

18% 20%

23%

17%

15% 10%

14%
24%

80%

Not sure

70%
60%
50%

72%

75% 69%

74%

70%

75%

77%

No
76%

65% 64%
68%

40%

77%

78%

74%
68%
Yes

30%
20%
10%

11%

10% 12%

11% 11%

Total

Male

ABC1

11% 13%

16% 16%

8%

6%

8%

35-44

45-54

55-64

0%
Female

C2DE

Play
Nat
Lott

Play
Char
Lott

16-24

25-34

13%
65+

12%

8%

Recent Non
charity donor
donor

Do you think the size (i.e. number of tickets sold) of an individual charity lottery should be capped?
Base: 1,000 adults 16+, Britain.
Source: Research Now For nfpSynergy -25 February 2015

Just 11% of the public thought that the number of tickets sold should be capped, while
72% thought it should not. Again the demographics show little variation, with only a
slight increase in support for capping tickets sold among the young.

Do charity lotteries cannibalise charity donations?

A further issue we explored in the research is whether people felt that buying charity
lottery tickets would be likely to decrease the donations they might make in other ways.
While this is more an issue for individual charities to assess in relation to their
fundraising and lottery programmes, it remains a relevant issue in understanding the
growth potential of charity lotteries.
Chart 5 shows that 18% thought their donations might be affected by playing a charity
lottery. There is a little variation to this answer by age or gender, and only among social
classes C2DE do we see an increase to 20% of respondents. Overall it appears that
respondents are not worried that playing a charity lottery will reduce their donations to
charities they support. It would take quite a complicated piece of research to discover
whether this is the case in practice.

Chart 5: Small minority say that playing a charity lottery would

make them donate less to charity
100%
90%

18%

19% 17%

17% 20%

17%

10%
22%

15%
28%

20%

16% 16%

13%
29%

80%

Not sure

70%
60%
50%

63%

62% 65%

67% 60%

64%

73%

64%

61% 70%

58%

65%

52%

57%

40%

No

69%

Yes

30%
20%
10%

18%

19% 18%

16%

Total

Male

ABC1

20%

19% 17%

20% 21%

15%

19%

14%

20%

17% 20%

65+

Recent Non
charity donor
donor

0%
Female

C2DE

Play
Nat
Lott

Play
Char
Lott

16-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

By choosing to play a charity lottery, would this make you less likely to give to a charity you supported?
Base: 1,000 adults 16+, Britain.
Source: Research Now For nfpSynergy -25 February 2015

Conclusions

Our overall conclusion is that the public does not support having a regulatory regime
which suppresses charity lotteries as a way of boosting the National Lottery. We are not
surprised. It has never made sense in our view to have a policy that effectively means
the best way for the National Lottery to raise even more money for good causes is to
hinder charities in their use of lotteries to raise money themselves. On that overall policy,
on prize caps and on size caps, it would seem that the public view is pretty clear.
As we spelt out in our original 2014 report on lotteries, A Chance to Give, we believe
there is a win/win for charity lotteries and the National Lottery. The price of National
Lottery success does not have to be the creation of a swamp of regulations and laws
which make it harder for charities to raise money via lotteries and drive up their costs.
We have only touched on a fraction of the laws and regulations that govern the
administration of charity/society lotteries. Our conclusion from this research is that less
than 10% of the public support the suppression of charity lotteries as a way of
protecting the National Lottery. This research shows that the public believe that that
there is room for all lotteries to flourish.
The funds raised by the National Lottery make possible an amazing amount of good
work for good causes. However, the National Lottery is far too big, too well-known and
too well-established to need to worry about charity lotteries, none of which have a
turnover of even 1% of the amount that National Lottery does. In a free market, laws
and regulations should be there to support the weak and the vulnerable, not those too
strong and dominant to need it.
6

Methodology, sample and questions

The fieldwork for this research was carried out online with a nationally representative
sample of UK adults, aged 16 and over, in February 2015 by Research Now. The survey
was not part of an omnibus, but dedicated to the questions about lotteries and giving
habits. We have included all the questions about lotteries that we asked.
We are happy to share the questions and the data tables for any interested parties, as
well as a PowerPoint file of the slides. For any further information about this report or
research, please contact Joe Saxton on joe.saxton@nfpsynergy.net.

About nfpSynergy

nfpSynergy is a research consultancy that aims to provide the ideas, the insights and the
information to help non-profits thrive.
We have over a decade of experience working exclusively with charities, helping them
develop evidence-based strategies and get the best for their beneficiaries. The
organisations we work with represent all sizes and areas of work and include one in
three of the top 100 fundraising charities in the UK.
We run cost effective, syndicated tracking surveys of stakeholder attitudes towards
charities and non-profit organisations. The audiences we reach include the general
public, young people, journalists, politicians and health professionals. We also work with
charities on bespoke projects, providing quantitative, qualitative and desk research
services.
In addition, we work to benefit the wider sector by creating and distributing regular free
reports, presentations and research on the issues that charities face.