Lotterywest has announced it returned $864.9 million to the community in grants and lottery prizes in the 2020-21 financial year.
Lotterywest said the result, a record, included $313.4 million that had gone to support the community through statutory and direct grants.
Premier, Mark McGowan said Lotterywest’s results had been possible following a record year of lottery sales, totalling more than $1 billion.
“There were 480 not-for-profit groups and Local Governments that benefited through the Lotterywest COVID-19 Relief Fund during 2020-21, with 593 grants totalling $122.2 million to assist those most impacted by the pandemic,” Mr McGowan said.
“The fund provided grants ranging from $3,000 to the Greenbushes Community Shed to help promote mental health and wellbeing amongst its members, to a $2.65 million grant to the City of Mandurah for a community centre to connect locals with each other.”
He said the Lotterywest COVID-19 Relief Fund, established in March last year, was the Government’s response to reprioritise grant-making to help the local community recover from the impact of the pandemic.
“Western Australia is fortunate to have the only State-owned lottery in Australia, where the profits are returned back to the community,” Mr McGowan said.
“This year’s record-breaking result has delivered support and funding to the local community as the State faced the unique challenges of COVID-19.”
Mr McGowan said he acknowledged the almost 500 small businesses on the front-line, selling lottery games that had contributed to the great result for the community.
