Everyone feels good when they do something nice to help the less fortunate, but no one personally wants to fork over the big bucks. Yet a measly dollar in a beggar's hat here and there is hardly enough. Solution: when you go buy Lotto tickets you can have the option to earmark any or all of them for
a charity. That way even though you only gave a dollar, who knows, maybe you gave them ten million. And given that people who play lotto don't fret too much about statistical realism, they can entertain the hope that entire villages in Cambodia (might) have benefitted from their largesse. Every now and then a news story about some such random serendipity will help to convince more people to do this and everyone will feel a little better about themselves. Of course, very little will be done to help the downtrodden, but that's another ball of donuts (c.f. recent bizarre metaphors entry).
I know that Lotto is already supposed to help fund state-run benevolence, and that what fuels its success is naked human greed, not altruism, but this suggestion is designed specifically to assuage the guilt of the average middle-class liquor store visitor, not actually help anybody in dire need.
If this is already being done, please tell me and I'll remove this. I don't buy lotto tickets or hang out in liquor stores much.
By the way, I know there are lots of Brits who post here. In case it wasn't obvious, Lotto is a branded term for state-run lotteries. Methinks.