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New lottery boost for charities
29/ 6/2004
THREE Greater Manchester charities are today gearing up for a major funding boost after being named as the initial beneficiaries of a unique new lottery.
After 12 months of wrangling lottery operator Million-2-1 have been given the go-ahead by the Gaming Board of Great Britain to run the first regional mobile phone lottery.
Gamblers will be around 15 times more likely to scoop a substantial prize than on the national lottery and the mobile phone lottery will also offer prizes "money can't buy" along with the cash awards.
The game has been created to generate extra funds for Christie Hospital, which is at the forefront of cancer research and care, the Community Foundation for Greater Manchester and Manchester Kids, a charity which helps underprivileged children.
Million-2-1 spokesman, Scott Davis said: "This lottery aims to make it easier for charities to gain extra funding.
"A lot of groups in the area have criticised the national lottery over their distribution of grants.
"This way all of the money generated in the Greater Manchester lottery goes straight back to communities, charities and voluntary groups in Greater Manchester.
"The mobile phone lottery has been set up with charities in mind and it will benefit them all."
Excited
Rachel Daniel, deputy appeals director at Christie's, said: "We are very excited about the launch of Million-2-1 and we are delighted to be one of the beneficiaries.
"It is the first time we have done anything like this, but we are hopeful it will raise our profile among a younger audience and heighten awareness of our cause.
"Around 165,000 patients are treated at the Christie Hospital each year, and although the majority of our funding comes through the NHS, it is vitally important that we continue to raise as much money as possible so research into new cancer treatments can continue and to pay for new equipment and comforting extras the hospital otherwise wouldn't be able to afford."
Under the scheme players are asked to register once by texting "Manchester" to 88821 and then each week they will receive a free text message asking them how many of the '1 tickets they want. If they don't want any they simply do not reply.
The lottery has already received the backing of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Million-2-1 said if the lottery is a success they hope to set-up 50 other individual lotteries in cities across Britain.
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17/08/2004 at 14:44
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