A new online lottery called the Rother Community Lottery launched in April 2022.

The Rother Community Lottery aims to help raise money for the many charities, not-for-profit community and voluntary groups that work within the Rother District. From every £1 lottery ticket purchased, 60p will go towards good causes.

Players of the Rother Community Lottery have a 50 to one chance of winning one of the prizes, which range from the £25,000 jackpot to three extra tickets and the first draw will take place on Saturday 30 April 2022.

Players can either set up a monthly recurring payment plan via Direct Debit or payment card or pay for a block of 1, 3, 6 or 12 months of weekly tickets on a non-recurring basis. There is no commitment to stay in the lottery and players can choose to leave at any time.

Which organisations can sign up?

Any good cause operating with the Rother district can apply. The terms and conditions are set out: Terms & Conditions for good causes – Rother Community Lottery

Got a question?

Here’s our FAQ for cause fundraisers – Rother Community Lottery

There is no obligation to sign up. Should you decide to join, you will have to commit to spreading the word about your own lottery page and reach a minimum of at least 20 ticket sales to start earning money for your organisation.

Ethical Lottery Considerations

Two main concerns raised from initiating a community lottery would be that the lottery would encourage problem gambling and target poorer people within the community, broadly based on the assumption that they are more likely to play lotteries.

We conducted some research and found that contradictory to the above concerns that the motivations behind wider gambling and playing community lotteries appear to be different with less risk of Community Lotteries exacerbating existing gambling problems.

Gatherwell, who are an experienced lottery manager and the chosen lottery partner, also have proactive measures in place to mitigate risks of problem gambling such as:

• Limited instant gratifications (tickets cannot be purchased on the day of the draw)
• Players can only play by setting up a Direct Debit or card payment, not cash
• Maximum of 20 tickets purchased in one transaction per supporter
• Gatherwell contacts supporters with a high-ticket yield to ensure they are aware of their purchase and lottery entries
• Links to Gamble Aware at the bottom of the website
• Players can set up a self-exclusion agreement to limit their future participation
• The industry is tightly regulated by the Gambling Commission

Research from Gatherwell using Acorn’s Consumer Classification into the social grouping of their players showed that: 80% of the players sit within the top 3 most affluent classifications, with around 12% of players in social group D and less than 5% in group E, the two groups with perhaps the least disposable income and living in difficult circumstances.

After discussions with Gatherwell, we are confident that a Rother Community Lottery would not encourage problem gambling. Community Lotteries appear more likely to attract people from higher incomes rather than target poorer people in the community and Gatherwell has proactive measures in place to mitigate any problem gambling as detailed above. Community Lotteries are also classed as ‘low risk’ by the Gambling Commission and the licence required to hold a lottery is the same as a raffle. Although not right for everyone, it is everyone’s choice whether to participate or not in the lottery.

Rother is really excited about this new lottery scheme. Not only will it help local organisations and charities but will also support projects that benefit the residents of the Rother District.