{"id":321882,"date":"2025-08-06T07:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321882\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T07:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:06:10","slug":"proposed-changes-to-charity-lottery-laws-in-northern-ireland-criticised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321882\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed changes to charity lottery laws in Northern Ireland criticised"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lottery,\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

Proposed charity lottery reforms in Northern Ireland have come under fire from The Christian Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The organisation warns that the Lotteries for Communities Bill could increase problem gambling and strip millions from the charitable sector.<\/p>\n

The legislation, which was introduced by Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland and is backed by the People’s Postcode Lottery, seeks to increase community funding through the expansion of charity lotteries – also known as society lotteries.<\/p>\n

Current law in Northern Ireland prevents large society lotteries from operating.<\/p>\n

The Christian Institute argues that the proposals are likely to have serious social and financial consequences.<\/p>\n

They cite UK government figures issued in June 2025 showing that over 50% of society lottery participants are at high risk of gambling harm\u2014a figure that jumps to 87% for those also engaging in other forms of gambling.<\/p>\n

The Christian Institute insists that using society lotteries as a charitable vehicle is financially inefficient.<\/p>\n

While operators like the People\u2019s Postcode Lottery claim that \u00a330 from every \u00a3100 ticket is donated to charity, the Institute argues that a direct \u00a3100 donation – after Gift Aid – would be worth \u00a3125 to a charity.<\/p>\n

This means society lotteries potentially divest charities of over three-quarters of a gift\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n

NI Policy Officer for The Christian Institute, James Kennedy, remarked: \u201cThe last thing Northern Ireland needs is more gambling, This Bill would put vulnerable people at greater risk while delivering a net loss to the charitable sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cMany charities help those affected by gambling harm. Many community groups, churches and others provide support to individuals affected. For this reason, many refuse to take funding from sources linked to gambling, such as the lottery.”<\/p>\n

At present, Northern Ireland lacks a gambling regulator, unlike the rest of the UK, and collects limited information on gambling harm, which the Christian Institute described as \u201centirely inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

It fears that increased marketing by major lottery operators could further drive addictive behaviours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new research from Westminster offers a stark picture of how harmful these lotteries really are. I just can\u2019t see how Alliance can press ahead with these plans,” said Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Last year, the People\u2019s Postcode Lottery invested more than \u00a384 million in promotional activities.<\/p>\n

The Christian Institute outlined its concerns in a submission to the Alliance Party\u2019s public consultation on the bill, which closed on July 31.<\/p>\n

They are urging MLAs to reject the legislation and instead focus on safeguarding individuals at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock) Proposed charity lottery reforms in Northern Ireland have come under fire from The Christian Institute.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[6732,62303,14982,1144,116468,106614,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-321882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-gambling","9":"tag-lottery","10":"tag-national-lottery","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-peoples-postcode-lottery","13":"tag-sian-mulholland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114980558275741614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}