Little lotto love for charities as operator eats into causes

The private operator of the National Lottery, Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI), has identified its "significant reliance" on IT and telecommunications as a key risk factor for the company. After several months of technical mishaps, system failures and malfunctioning ticket terminals, this hardly comes as a surprise .

Its first set of results since taking over the franchise provides an insight into the numbers behind the Irish lottery.

The €56.8 million it generated in sales in December, the only figures we have for last year, show Lotto sales have still not recovered from the crash. Extrapolated annually, it suggests sales for last year may fall short of the €685 million generated in 2013, a far cry from the boom-time high of €840 million.

It's worth noting the money going to good causes amounted to €15.7 million in December, or 27.6 per cent of turnover. Prior to privatisation, charities and other beneficiaries received at least 30.5 per cent of revenue from ticket and scratchcard sales. The difference equates to about €20 million a year, a handsome return when you consider sales are nowhere near what they could be. If multiplied out over a 20-year period to reflect the length of the current licence, the return matches the €405 million paid by PLI's parent, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), for the licence.

With consumer spending still to recover and greater online sales forecast, PLI can expect to its €20 million-plus income to rise significantly.

By extracting a big upfront payment, however, the Government hopes it has sufficiently incentivised the operator to grow the business, which will benefit good causes, albeit at a price.

Meanwhile, PLI’s sister company Camelot this week rolled out a raft of changes to the UK lottery. The most controversial was the decision to increase the number of balls from 49 to 59. Statisticians say this pushes the chances of winning the jackpot from 14 million to one to 45 million to one.

PLI is known to be planning similar changes here, which will also include a price increase. It’s not hard to guess how this will go down with punters already frustrated by the new service.