First Penny Lottery planned

The world's first "Penny Lottery" offering a top prize of £25,000 to raise cash for London's Olympics bid was announced today.

The scheme could see 1p tickets on sale every day with a nightly draw. Anyone getting all eight numbers in the Penny Lottery will get a £25,000 prize regardless of how many winners there are each day. Players can buy as many tickets as they want.

It is one of a series of money-making ideas unveiled by Camelot. Other games include:

In the Penny Lottery players can buy as many tickets as they want but cannot choose the numbers. Those getting fewer numbers correct will win one of 40,000 other prizes on offer.

Announcing the new Lottery games, Camelot chief executive Dianne Thompson said she was positive that Britons would play the games to help raise £750 million needed as part of the funding for London to host the 2012 Olympics.

She added: "We are thrilled to have been asked by the Government to raise money for the London Olympics.

"It is a responsibility that Camelot takes very seriously, which is why we have already developed these robust game concepts. We hope to launch the first Olympic Lottery game as early as next year."

She said she was particularly excited by the Olympic Mega Draw which she hopes will capture the public imagination like the massive El Gordo lottery has done in Spain.

It is hoped that the new Lottery games will also prove a turning point for Camelot, who today revealed that ticket sales have continued to fall sharply. Buying tickets for the Olympic Lottery means players will know exactly which good cause their money is going towards.

Until now, the £12.7billion raised for good causes by players has been distributed by the separate national Lottery funds. In some cases, the charities which have won funding have proved highly controversial.

Most recently, the Community Fund gave £340,000 to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportat ion Campaigns which was accused of helping to keep extremists in Britain.

Such bad publicity was thought to put many people off playing the Lottery.

However, if the Olympic Lottery proves extremely popular, it could force the Government to reconsider introducing lotteries aimed at raising money for specific charities. Camelot also today announced that it will launch a pan-European game with an estimated jackpot of £35 million as well as a daily draw offering a one in eight chance of winning with prizes between £5 and £30,000.

The new Lottery games still need to be approved by the National Lottery Commission but it is hoped they will be on offer from as early as next spring.

Overall, more than £2.4 billion needs to be raised to fund the Olympics.

London is seen as the frontrunner to win the bid for the Games with Paris in second place.

Winning the bid could prove a turning point for the capital as it would provide millions of pounds of much- needed investment in London's transport links and in housing in the East End where the Games would be centred.