National Lottery raised £36,596,220 for good causes in the West Midlands so far this year

Since 1994, the National Lottery has sponsored £3,167,157,703-worth of projects in the West Midlands. Birmingham absorbed most of these funds (£990,529,164), followed by Shropshire (£207,432,625) and Sandwell (£189,959,873). Meanwhile, Tamworth only ever received £12,527,417, this being the least funded place in the West Midlands.

This year alone, the West Midlands received £36,596,220 from the National Lottery, according to a study conducted by Solitaired.com (https://solitaired.com/), based on the latest government statistics. The single biggest lottery-funded project in the West Midlands this year so far was worth £2,661,850 for the Black Country Consortium Ltd in Dudley.

Awarded on 24 March, the government data describes the project as "Investment with Key Partners in the Sport and Physical Activity System". So far, a total of £46bn from the National Lottery has gone towards good causes across the UK, in areas such as education, environment, health, arts and sport. Sport is the sector in the West Midlands that benefitted the most from National Lottery grants over the past 28 years.

The latest official government data suggests that this area in the West Midlands received a total of £702,032,271. Heritage is the second most lottery-funded sector in the West Midlands, with £610,343,700-worth of sponsorship since 1994. Arts causes follow closely behind, benefitting from £589,555,109 over the past three decades.

Stratford-on-Avon received the biggest ever lottery grant in the region. On 30 March, 2004, the National Lottery awarded Royal Shakespeare Company £58,963,924 for a single project. Nationally, Westminster has benefitted the most from National Lottery funds, amounting to a whopping £1,439,592,279 since 1994.

All these funds come from a proportion of ticket sales, as well as any unclaimed prizes within 180 days. Telford and Wrekin and Herefordshire currently host two millionaires, Wolverhampton - a multimillionaire, while a Set for Life winner lives in Sandwell. All four are yet claimed their prizes until November 6th, November 10th, December 15th and December 17th, respectively. Between October and December, 2021, UK residents claimed around £38m less than the previous quarter, which was added as returns to good causes.

The latest national survey carried out by the Gambling Commission suggests that 43% of adults took part in some form of gambling activity in the four weeks prior to the survey. This constitutes 4% less than before the pandemic. In the year ending March 31st, 2022, over £8bn-worth of tickets have been sold, of which almost a quarter went to various good causes across the UK.

A spokesperson for Solitaired.com commented on the findings: "If you ever lost a winning lottery ticket, there is comfort in knowing that your prize would have gone to a good cause, quite possibly in your own town."

Here is how much funding from the National Lottery every local authority in the West Midlands has received since 1994 until the end of June, 2022:

There are eight lottery-funded grants currently available for eligible entities in England, with a maximum funding amount of £100,000. Another seven grants are available nationwide for film- and heritage-related projects, some of which have no maximum funding limit.

The research was conducted by Solitaired.com, a free, browser-based card game platform with more than 500 games available to play.