New 'ethical' lotto launched

A new "ethical" national lottery raising money exclusively for a range of popular charities is launched today.

Backed by stars such as Sex And The City actress Kim Cattrall and 1966 World Cup hero Sir Geoff Hurst, the £1-a-ticket game, called Lucky 7 Lotto, will hand over one fifth of its takings to seven selected charities.

The company behind the game claims it will appeal to people concerned about where their money ends up when they play the official National Lottery.

Simon Stimpson, chief executive of HH Gaming, the company promoting the game, said: "We are not competing with the National Lottery but it is an alternative where you can see exactly where your money is going.

"The money also goes to the charities straight away, unlike the National Lottery, where there is still more than ?2 billion sitting in funds."

Although there are dozens of charity-based gambling lotteries and scratchcards operating, no multicharity lotteries have yet got off the ground as a national regulated game. An attempt by Friends Reunited to launch a charity-based game ended in failure. Another hopeful, the Chariot Lottery, has yet to be launched.

Lucky 7 Lotto, licensed by the Gaming Board of Great Britain, can only be played online using a credit or debit card at www.lucky7lotto.co.uk. It will use an almost identical system to the National Lottery.

The draw will take place at 5pm each Friday with a one-in-a-million chance of getting the top £100,000 prize. The number of tickets each week will be capped at a million and the prize fund will total £500,000.

Each week, one of the participating charities will get 20 per cent of the takings. The charities are Breast Cancer Campaign, Children In Crisis, Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League, Canine Partners, Acorns Children's Hospice Trust, the Variety Club Children's Charity and Seafarers UK.

If the lottery is successful it could raise about £10 million a year. Kim Barton, director of fundraising at Children in Crisis, said: "This exciting new opportunity will help us to raise crucial funds."

But a spokeswoman for Camelot said: "The National Lottery currently returns more than £23 million a week to good causes and has raised more than ?16 billion since its launch."