Brent Council is apparently considering staking its money on a community lottery. The proceeds will supposedly go the voluntary sector, although if you look at the detail of the report only 50% of the proceeds are earmarked in that direction. The Council's reports suggests that the contract for the new scheme should be passed without a normal tendering process, and that the favoured company should rake in no less than 40% of the proceeds. The final 10% would be taken by the Council itself.
I find all this frankly repugnant. Gambling is inherently fraudulent because the organisation operating it has to fix the odds against the users disadvantage. Brent itself has a huge gambling problem, with a heavy concentration of betting shops that are deeply unpopular with local residents. Reducing gambling has been an aim of progressive campaigners for years, because it is known to ruin peoples lives. For Brent Council to start promoting gambling is firstly a mockery of previous attempts to restrict gambling and secondly a moral abnegation.
Cheating your residents out of their money is no way for a proper public authority to behave.
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