Exeter City Council has been using its income from Exeter Community Lottery to pay gambling licence fees and other costs for more than eighteen months while falsely claiming that 60% of ticket sales revenue goes to local community groups.
Contrary to numerous Exeter Community Lottery website point of sale claims, persistently repeated over the course of nearly two years in official council communications, it diverted more than half its first year lottery income into its own coffers and is now keeping a third of this income each year.
At the same time Gatherwell, the aptly-named operator which runs the lottery on the council’s behalf, is receiving more income from ticket sales than all 129 of the voluntary and community groups that have signed up for the Exeter scheme put together, making a gross profit of 33% after local prize pay-outs.
Gatherwell is owned …
