Collingwood launches Magpie Millions lottery to help community

WHAT are the odds for a Collingwood Football Club AFL premiership in 2017?

About the same as winning the club’s new lottery system.

The football club, which fosters mens and women’s AFL teams and netball team, announced ‘Magpie Millions’ today – a lottery which it says will give fans the chance to win cash and money-can’t-buy experiences.

The first prize for the inaugural draw will award $2 million to the winner and will take place on Thursday, February 16.

Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert said all profits from the lottery will be syphoned back into the Magpies’ community projects.

“Sports lottery products in Europe have proven to be valuable additional source for sporting clubs and major sporting bodies, while being compatible with the community and social values of those clubs and organisations,” Pert said.

“Magpie Millions will work the same way. Socially positive outcomes are the bottom line.

“With our national reach and popularity, we are in the privileged position of being able to take a lead and play a meaningful role in the community.”

The Pies will work in conjunction alongside the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation to ensure the lottery adheres to its regulations.

Pert said the lottery will only be open to people over the age of 18 and that each entrant could only have a maximum weekly spend of $20.

“We want this to be a fun way that our members and supporters can help contribute to the important work we do in the community,” he said.

The draw will be conducted by the Northern Territory Gaming Commission, and if an entrant selects the correct six numbers as well as the right legend, they will be eligible to share in the guaranteed $2 million first-prize pool.

A single entry costs $2.50, with each entrant asked to choose six Collingwood guernsey numbers from 1 to 30, as well as one of 25 Magpie legends listed, whose names include Dane Swan and Peter Daicos.

Second prize is $50,000 on a sliding scale of 10 different payout options.

Interested in playing lotto but couldn’t stand to give a cent of your cash to Collingwood? Visit Online Lotto here.

Our take – great in theory, but will the Pies’ grand plan work in reality?

On face value, Collingwood’s plans to implement a lottery to funnel funds directly into its welfare projects, grassroots and community programs is a fantastic one.

The Magpies generating serious amounts of cash and using 100 per cent of the profits to help the wider community, what’s not to like?

The argument can be made that this is effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Putting the lower socio-economic jokes about Collingwood fans into perspective, the club is asking its members and supporters to hand over their hard-earned cash to essentially fund projects that will impact them directly.

Collingwood chief executive Garry Pert justified this by saying it is a ‘fun’ way for their fans to engage in the community-minded projects, but that seems like a guise for the club saying ‘give us your money’ to fund the projects we want to do, but cannot financially afford.

A community program that asks for money through gambling related activities seems counter-intuitive, but Collingwood’s collective heart is in the right place.

The Pies seem like their implementing their lottery for purely altruistic purposes, but do the ends justify the means?

We think so. No one is putting a gun to anyone’s head and making them outlay money. There is real restrictions to limit the impact of problem gambling and all the funds go into the community.

Of any sport-gambling related partnership, this is one we feel we can support.