All Kiwis to benefit from Lotteries' record year
Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy said tonight that all New Zealanders will benefit from the record profit made by the New Zealand Lotteries Commission.
"Over the last financial year, fuelled by two large jackpots, New Zealand Lotteries has reported a record-breaking profit."
Mr Guy was speaking at a special Lotteries Commission function to celebrate a new record in the amount of funding transferred by the Commission to the Lottery Grants Board which he chairs as Minister of Internal Affairs.
"In July, the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board announced that over $163 million would be pumped back into the community and to the statutory bodies that serve the creative arts, New Zealand film, and community sports and recreation.
"Now, thanks to a further record jackpot right at the end of the financial year, an extra $14.2 million will be distributed to the community through increased grants to all Lottery community committees, from small, grassroots organisation to big, national projects. The statutory bodies will also benefit.
"This will be welcome news to those community groups that make things happen in their communities in these hard economic times."
The Statutory bodies - Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission and Sport and Recreation (SPARC) had recently been allocated nearly $65 million from the Lottery Grants Board for the new financial year.
SPARC will now receive an extra $2.84 million, Creative New Zealand $2.1m and the New Zealand Film Commission will receive $994,000 which includes $71,000 for the New Zealand Film Archive.
The balance of the $14.2 million will be distributed by the Board's funding committees to community causes over the coming year.