It’s the return of jackpots in associative lotto. Since the beginning of the year, the government had limited the value of the prizes to 150 euros per person in order to fight against addiction and money laundering (some had made lotto a real business). A decision that penalized associations, for whom traditional lotto is a cash flow. This decision has been deleted at the beginning of November.
The deputy for Lochois behind the new decree
Like thousands of people in France, many elected officials were offended by this decision that penalized and weakened associations in this period of health crisis. Sophie Métadier, the deputy of Lochois is at the origin of the suppression of this decree, the government wanting to give air to the associations. The measure was unfair, explains the member of the 3rd constituency of Indre-et-Loire: “A lot of associations have some income from lotto, since that’s the first idea an association thinks of when it needs money to run it. There may be other ways to limit the lottery fraud“.
It must be said that the law is strict in this area. For games, resale is prohibited, explains Rémi Bruneau, he runs traditional lotos in Sud-Touraine: “As in TV games, when you win a prize, you are not allowed to resell it for a year. The lots were bought with associative money, suddenly it is most often resale in cash, and that the State wanted to have a say, which is why there was this limit to 150 euros in order to reduce this type of transaction as much as possible“.
Lotos help keep associations alive
François Verneau is the president of the ACCA Draché association. He believes that the decision which has just been taken (decree published in the Official Journal on November 5, 2021) is very good news for thousands of associations in France: “The people who make the lotto, they come for the jackpots, not for the consolation prizes. This is good news for us because when there are small lots there are fewer people. This allows associations to live, a lottery allows you to make between 1,500 and 2,000 euros in profits. The contributions of our members are not sufficient to finance our activities“.
In Indre-et-Loire, around forty lotos are organized every month in the communes.