§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give the reasons why he will not give an estimate of the revenue which would accrue to the Treasury if the Premium Bond Office were to organise a weekly national lottery based on a football pools scheme, or an updated and improved Ernie lottery on selected numbers.
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§ Mr. Denzil DaviesThere is insufficient information on which to base such an estimate. In particular, it is not possible to estimate the impact of a national lottery on revenue from other forms of gambling. Unless a lottery were to attract sufficient additional money to offset any switch from existing gambling, total revenue would suffer. Similar difficulties apply to the effect of a lottery on Government revenue from National Savings—notably premium savings bonds.