Northern Ireland is potentially missing out on millions of pounds of fundraising income from charity lotteries, ballots and raffles due to out-of-date legislation and the large number of non-compliant and illegal games running across the country research by Neil Irwin of niFundraising has found. In Northern Ireland, 1 in 5 of the adult population of Northern Ireland play raffles, or scratchcards other than National Lottery products yet figures obtained from local councils responsible for registering society lotteries shows proceeds of only £1.3m from games. There are in total only 173 registered society lotteries across all of NI according to council figures but there is a large number of organisations running games that should report to councils that are not registered. There is potentially millions of pounds unaccounted for. “These games are played by the public, so the rules and regulations are there to give them assurance and confidence their money is going to a good cause, t