Rollover lottery money to Philippines aid relief?

[deptfordmarmoset]

Just got this in my inbox and thought it was worth signing.

http://email.change.org/wf/click?up...-2Bx64SwoNAWl1m3weZOrn7sf0v-2BjNYN-2FL6OFM-3D
National Lottery (@TNLUK): Donate £12million EuroMillion prize that wasn't won to Philippines #TyphoonAid
By Rachel Riddall
Bristol
Sign the Petition
On Tuesday, £12 million (€15 million) was up for grabs from the EuroMillion prize draw but there were no winners.

I'd just finished watching the 10 O'clock news and saw the shocking harrowing scenes of the suffering in the Philippines, where millions of people have had their lives torn apart by a typhoon. I then watched the short appeal film for urgent money needed for the Disaster Relief Fund. Immediately after this was the EuroMillions result. £12million that NO ONE had won. It is going to be rolled over to the next draw on Friday 15th November.

It would be so fantastic if this money was donated to the disaster relief fund to alleviate the pain and suffering taking place right now.

It could do so much good and NO ONE would miss it, because NO ONE has won it.

Please sign this petition and let's see if we can make a difference to those people whose lives have been torn apart by this typhoon.

Let's see if the National Lottery will act with compassion and make a massive difference to those who need our help now.

Sign the Petition

 

[simon.r]

Excellent idea - signed.

 

[Davidc]

It's up to the person who eventually wins it, to whom it contractually belongs.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

It's up to the person who eventually wins it, to whom it contractually belongs.

Huh, it belongs to someone who hasn't actually bought the ticket yet?

 

[Davidc]

Huh, it belongs to someone who hasn't actually bought the ticket yet?

It may do, and they may not live in the UK. They may well not buy the ticket if the jackpot were to be reduced in the way suggested.

Buying a lottery ticket is a commercial transaction, as is winning the jackpot. The suggestion made is totally inappropriate.

As I said it's up to the winner. I see that the next draw is a special for £80 million. It could well be that the winner(s) will donate a large sum to the Phillipines relief effort. When the rollover reappears, presumably as a part of a £25+ million draw it might well be that the winner(s) donate a large sum. Either way it's up to them, not to some arbitrary self-selecting busybody in Bristol who wants to rip up contract law and confiscate this money from its rightful owner.

No certainty, but I suspect that the aid effort is likely to get massively more from lottery jackpot winners' donations than it would from this suggested confiscation of lottery funds.

 

[Ganymede]

I'm afraid Davidc is absolutely right. You can't just have the money appropriated for a particular cause when the tickets were sold in good faith. Also - where would it lead? You could make the case for the Lottery money to be taken away every week and given in its entirety to good causes, then the incentive to buy tickets would be removed.

I was also irritated to see someone in one of the letters pages suggest that all money made by Children In Need should go straight to the Philippines - a lot of these funds are used to sustain charities in this country which provide the kind of social services which used to be provided from general taxation. If you just removed the money for a year and the organisations went under, there'd be nothing to left to fund! - sorry this last point is off-topic but related.

 

[Linford]

Whilst a very altruistic gesture, Everyone who already buys a ticket is giving to charity because only a portion of that ticket value goes to running the lottery, and paying the prize fund out.

The chances of winning anything is fairly remote, so the very vast majority of people who do buy 1 or 2 tickets per week are already giving fairly generously to charity....even if they might themselves not appreciate it...it is all relative at the end of the day.

 

[TheJDog]

If you buy a lottery ticket, give an extra quid to charity. That's a better suggestion than this.

 

[Crankarm]

If you won the rollover £80 million, could you then Gift Aid it to what ever charity took your fancy then the Gov would have to stump up the tax you would have paid on it? If in the 40% tax band then Gov would have to pay £32 million. Hahahahahahhaaaaaaaa.

 

[mcshroom]

Gift-aid would only refund the tax you have paid in. HMRC are usually pretty lax about checking this as most charities only claim at standard rate and the sums involved are usually so small that the likelihood you haven't paid that much tax is low.

I'd bet they'd check for that sort of value however.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

RE Gift aid, the charity can only claim back at the basic rate (20%), if you are a higher rate tax payer you can claim the difference between basic and your rate on your self assessment up to the amount of tax you have paid / due to pay for that tax year.

 

[oldfatfool]

If Rachel Riddall wants to give money to aid the this crisis then she should feel free, but not with money that doesn't belong to her, and should the lottery decide to do this, which I suspect would break several laws and license cluases, I for one would never buy a ticket again.

 

[snorri]

I've signed.
If it was ok to throw lottery money at the limpics, it is certainly ok to send it to the Phillippines, not that I've ever bought a lottery ticket.

 

[oldfatfool]

I've signed.
If it was ok to throw lottery money at the limpics, it is certainly ok to send it to the Phillippines, not that I've ever bought a lottery ticket.

Its not throwing lottery money though is it, if Camelot want to spend the lottery fund on the Phillipines, fine. But this dozy bint is proposing that they send the prize fund!!

 

[Ganymede]

The chances of winning anything is fairly remote, so the very vast majority of people who do buy 1 or 2 tickets per week are already giving fairly generously to charity....even if they might themselves not appreciate it...it is all relative at the end of the day.

Lotteries are a stealth tax on the poor....