Lotteries that contributed to good causes expect EU recognition

State lotteries in European countries extending from Malta to Finland that contributed €22.4 billion to good causes and public budgets last year are demanding recognition.

Ahead of the publication of the European Commission’s Green Paper on gambling, European Lotteries president Friedrich Stickler called on EU policy-makers to recognise “the unique position of state lotteries in the EU gambling sector as well as in society in general, in particular their important contributions to the development of European civil society and to the pursuit of other public interest objectives”.

The European Lotteries is the European umbrella organisation of state lotteries operating games of chance “for the public benefit”. It has members from 40 European countries including all 27 EU member states (www.european-lotteries.eu).

Mr Stickler said the money state lotteries contributed in 2009 was an amount that had remained stable or had even grown during the last years of economic crisis.

“This funding is indispensable to public authorities and thousands of civil society organisations across Europe, especially in these difficult times. We think it is in the best interest of society that EU policy-makers find a solution to guarantee a sustainable future for this public utility model we stand for and which is applied in all EU member states,” Mr Stickler said.

European Lotteries said civil society’s top beneficiaries of lottery funding in the EU were sport, mainly grassroots sport (€2 billion in 2009), charity (€1.5 billion) and arts/cultural heritage (€0.9 billion).

Science/health/research, education/youth, environment/climate change and development cooperation were other areas that greatly benefited from lottery funding, it said.