Australian sports lottery faces strong criticism

The Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) has slammed the proposed national sports lottery which could increase the number of Olympic medals won by our athletes.

The national lottery, based on the UK model, has been suggested as a source of funding for Australian Olympic athletes.

It has strong support from the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) and Australian Sports Commission (ASC).

But in its submission to the review of the National Sports Plan, ALNA slammed the lottery detailing the impact it could have on small businesses.

The organisation which oversees newsagents, believes the sports fund, which could raise up to $70 million a year, could detract from lottery taxes which currently go to hospitals, schools and charities.

More than $1.6 billion in lottery taxes go to state and territory governments, according to ALNA chief executive Adam Joy.

Joy added that ALNA believes the lottery would hurt 4000 small businesses in Australia which employ around 20,000 people.

“It seems like they’re running full steam ahead … without doing enough consultation,” Joy said.

“It just doesn’t make sense to take it away to fund sports.”

Joy suggested a national Point of Consumption (POC) tax on online bookmakers instead of the lottery.

“Online wagering companies are benefiting considerably from sport in Australia and therefore should have a role in supporting it,” he said.

A POC tax has already been imposed in South Australia, with a number of states and territories monitoring its effectiveness.

The funds generated are unlikely to be injected into sports so the federal government is looking at the lottery as a source of income instead.

Sports Minister, Greg Hunt, has reportedly contacted a number of gambling companies to discuss the lottery in recent weeks, with several indicating their interest.

It is not yet clear how the lottery would be run, however.

Since the UK introduced a national sports lottery, Great Britain athletes have reportedly recorded their best results ever at the past three Olympic Games.

Back home, the number of Olympic medals won by Australian athletes has dropped over the past four Olympic Games.

Australia recorded the lowest number of medals since 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, with a haul of just 29 medals.

The ASC and the AOC have said the decline could continue if there is no funding provided for the athletes.

“We are on a burning deck in terms of our international performance,’’ ASC chairman, John Wylie, said.

“There is no better evidence of that than what has been happening at the Olympic Games.

“If we are going to remain competitive internationally, if we are going to have a healthy and active society, we need to invest significantly more in the system.’’

The ASC also revealed it had to inform Olympic sports of a 1.1 to 5 percent funding cut this financial year.

“We didn’t give them encouraging or positive news,’’ an ASC spokesman said.

“If you want to pursue top five with a declining funding pool, you either fund fewer sports or you rethink if top five is achievable because it’s so much harder without the appropriate funding.

“You either go broad and shallow (giving a small amount of funding to all sports) or narrow and deep (properly fund only those sports with the best medal potential).’’

Submissions to the review of the National Sports Plan close on Monday.