Fairer Lottery Set For Launch

An online lottery pitching itself as a "fairer" alternative to the National Lottery is set to launch in Britain.

Chariot, the firm behind "Monday - The Charities Lottery", says it will give a higher proportion of money to charities than the Camelot-run National Lottery.

The company also says its players will have better odds of winning cash.

Camelot said it was "proud" of its funding of good causes, claiming it had already raised £80m for the charities that will be supported by "Monday".

In both games, players try to match six numbers to a randomly-drawn set of six.

But Chariot, the company responsible for the new game, says its jackpots will be capped at £200,000 in contrast to the National Lottery's six-figure payouts.

There will be no rollovers, with jackpots being given to the player or players with the closest match to six numbers.

Chariot boss Tim Holley says the game has the backing of 70 charities including Barnardos, British Red Cross, Marie Curie Cancer Care and Shelter.

Mr Holley, a former boss at Camelot, said there was a "common frustration" with the way National Lottery money was dealt with.

"We've taken three years to develop this and know it will succeed because it rewards players and charities alike."

Each week, five charities will share a cut of Chariot's lottery money. Players will be asked which of the five they want to support.

With the new game, 30p from every £1 ticket sold will go to charity. Of every £1 spent on the National Lottery, 28p is donated to good causes.

Some 55p out of each £1 will go into the prize fund with Chariot's game, compared with 50p in the National Lottery.

Camelot said in a statement that their ticketholders had a better chance of winning £100,000 than players of the new game would have.

The statement added: "We are very proud that our players have already helped to raise over £18bn for good causes.

"Although Camelot does not allocate lottery funding, we note that more than 40 of the 70 charities supported by Monday have already received lottery funding totalling nearly £80m."

The first weekly draw for the Monday game will be on 8 May at 2000 BST, with tickets being available on playmonday.com or by postal subscription.