Occasionally, a winner of a cash prize doesn’t collect it. It can be for various reasons; someone forgets to check their ticket, or forgets they have ever bought one. Either way, figures suggested that in 2006, 600 Million pounds laid unclaimed. Even now, the larger unclaimed amounts can be seen on The National Lottery’s website, where the amount, draw date and area of which the ticket was bought can be seen.
People have 180 days to claim their winnings, and if they don’t the money is passed on to good causes. Using newer ways to play, like buying a ticket online removes a lot of the risk of forgetting you have a ticket since the system will automatically check to see if you have a winning ticket.
Of the money taken from the price of a £1 ticket, 28% of it goes to good causes, the second highest percentage after the 50% that goes to lottery winners. So far 21 billion has been given to good causes and over 300,000 grants have been awarded in the UK.
With the Euro-Millions, the proportion of money spent by UK residents on tickets are donated towards good causes in the country.
The grants can be for various reasons; it can be a charity, or it can be for educational purposes. It can be for minority groups or to promote social causes and communities. New buildings have been built because of lottery support, as well as new equipment for children, teens with learning difficulties and the elderly, and staff wages for charities have been paid using lotto money.
Either way, the applicants and organizations must apply to the Big Lottery Fund requesting the support which is not a short and easy process; monies required and a justification for the amount; therefore the money is not given away carelessly.
The lottery also fund large scale projects, most notably the 2012 London Olympics. The UK lottery will be contributing £2.2 billion towards the games; 750 million of this raised from specifically designated lotto games, for example two new online games named Olympic Champions and Sync or Swim as well as new scratch cards. The money will be used towards building the stadiums that will be required for the games.
The money spent on the lottery is not completely consumed by a private company, unlike traditional gambling; a good proportion goes towards good a cause which is a positive thing; in many ways it means that lottery players are supporting these charities and schemes that would otherwise struggle to raise any funds. Playing the UK lottery does in fact ensure that the good work continues.
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