Australia eyes lottery funding for 2020 Tokyo Olympics quest

Australia is learning a thing or two on the importance of lottery from its former colonizers.

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is eyeing to duplicate the UK’s national lottery scheme, which was cited as the key to the successful campaign of British athletes in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Australia sits in the tenth place with eight golds, 11 silver, and 10 bronze medals at the conclusion of summer Olympics on Monday. UK, on the other hand, has rewritten their Olympic history, moving ahead of China into second place in the Rio 2016 medal tally with 27 golds, 23 silver and 17 bronze medals.

Some British newspapers said that part of success of the UK sports program goes back to the battle that former Prime Minister John Major had in 1991 to start the National Lottery. The British Lottery System was set up in 1994, with 50 per cent of returns going back to the prize pool, 28 per cent to “good causes” and 12 per cent to the government.