A NEW city lottery should be up and running by March after councillors approved how the system will look and work.

At a meeting of Worcester City Council's income generation subcommittee on Tuesday (January 15), councillors were asked to choose a number of options on how the money is distributed and who benefits from the money raised.

Organisations could sign up to the lottery and ask its supporters to set up a monthly subscription to the lottery. Once some good causes have signed up, tickets would be put on sale.

A lottery launch event will be held on February 13 with tickets going on sale potentially in March and the first draw taking place in mid-April.

The option picked means those wanting to take part in the lottery would have to sign up online to buy a ticket and choose which charity or organisation they would like their subscription to benefit.

Half of the subscription money would go directly to the individual charity or organisation with ten per cent going towards a general fund.

If an individual did not pick a specific group, the full 60 per cent of the subscription would go to the general fund.

The money gathered together in a general fund would then be distributed between charities and organisations based on the number of tickets sold.

Of the remaining money, 20 per cent would go towards prize money, 16 per cent would pay for admin fees and four per cent would be VAT.

Cllr Roger Knight said that option seemed the fairest, easiest to apply and least bureaucratic.

He said: "It's probably right that those who are subscribing to the system should benefit from it."

A community lottery is different to the National Lottery in that the maximum prize would be £25,000 and would not rollover.