UK culture and Olympics secretary Tessa Jowell and London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe show the Go for Gold scratchcard at the launch ceremony in London exactly seven years before the start of the Games. The printing of the scratchcards started "literally two minutes" after the announcement that London won the Games.
Some of the lotteries will be INTERNET BASED. Have you heard?
London 2012 Olympics to get £1.5 billion from Olympic Lottery: wanna Go for Gold to win £2012?
Go for Gold and other partialy Internet based lottery games will pour money into 2012 Olympics
The first "Go for Gold" scratchcard launched in the UK last week is expected to raise at least £750 million by 2012, which will contribute to the £1.5 billion of lottery money to be invested into the Olympics to sustain massive preparation projects.
UK culture and Olympics secretary Tessa Jowell said “the game was launched now to give it enough time to its target income”.
More than 11 million cards went on sale tomorrow at £1 each. Players will have a chance of one in 4.93 to win part of the £6.5 million total prize money.
The top prize in the first lottery that will help fund the London 2012 Olympics is £2012, which comes no surprise.
The 11 prize levels will start at £1, with nine people winning the top prize of £2,012.
Dianne Thompson, chief executive of the National Lottery operator Camelot, said 28p of each £1-card sold would go to the Olympics. About 50p is paid out in prizes, 12p in taxes and 5p each to Camelot and the shops selling the tickets.
An interesting but unbelievable thing has been unveiled about UK Olympic Lottery: the printing of the scratchcards started "literally two minutes after the announcement that London won the Games”, Ms Thompson said.
Some of the lotteries will be internet based, while others will be themed around the Beijing Olympics in 2008.There are also talks about a London 2012-themed TV lottery game show.
Another £340m will come from existing elite sport programmes funded by the Sports Lottery Fund, and, if needed, up to £410m reallocated from mainstream lotteries just before the Games.
