Online lottery betting operators are poking holes in the idea that they negatively impact returns to good causes by Ireland’s National Lottery.

A new report by University College Dublin economist Jim Power, An Assessment of the Online Gambling Market in Ireland, argues that it is ‘factually incorrect” to claim that lottery betting operators are behind a decline in funding for good causes by Ireland’s National Lottery.

The report, which was commissioned by the European Lotto Betting Association (ELBA), found that funding for good causes from the National Lottery was indeed on the decline, falling from €268m in 2008 to €225m in 2017, a drop of €43m (16%).

However, the report also showed that that the ELBA’s three Irish-licensed members, including Lottoland and myLotto24, generated total Irish sales of €1.4m in 2017, or roughly 0.25% of the draw-based turnover generated by National Lottery operator Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) last year.