From ticket to grant: how the NLC and the NLDTF spend lottery money

Following one R10 ticket

The National Lottery is run by a licensed operator, currently Sizekhaya Holdings, and regulated by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC). The operator sells the tickets, pays the prizes and its retailers, and passes a fixed share of sales to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). The fund is set up under section 21 of the Lotteries Act 57 of 1997, and the NLC’s board members serve as its trustees.

The Minister’s foreword to the NLC’s 2025/26 annual report sets out the split for the previous financial year. Ticket sales came to R7.28 billion: 48% went to prizes, 34% to the NLDTF and 6% to retailer commission. Here is what that means for a single R10 PowerBall board:

The 34% matches the share reported for Sizekhaya’s licence: iGaming Business says 34% of revenue goes to the NLDTF under its terms. Be aware that an older NLC page still quotes 27% as the share fixed in the operator’s licence, so the percentage depends on which licence was in force. At the time of writing, check the NLC’s site for the current figure. The operator transfers the money to the fund weekly.

Not all of the fund’s money comes from sales. Prizes that nobody claims within 365 days are also forfeited to the NLDTF, and the latest annual report records R89 million of expired prizes due to the fund, against R69 million the year before. Our guide to claiming a lottery prize explains the deadline. The annual report also records R273.6 million in interest for the latest year.

How the fund divides the money

Sections 26 and 28 to 31 of the Act govern how the fund is allocated, and regulations under the Lotteries Amendment Act 32 of 2013 fix the shares by sector. The NLC’s NLDTF page and the annual report give the same split. Applied to the R3.40 from one R10 board:

The fund runs on a financial year from 1 April to 31 March. Money collected in one year, plus interest, is distributed in the next, and section 25(2) of the Act carries any unspent balance forward. That lag is one reason the grant figures in any single year do not track that year’s ticket sales.

How grants are decided and paid

The NLC does not choose the grantees itself. Applications are judged by distributing agencies, whose members are appointed by the Minister after public nominations. The current ten members were appointed under sections 26A and 26B(1) for five years, from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2030, and they adjudicate under sections 28 to 31. There are two routes to funding:

• Applications. An organisation first registers on the NLC’s online portal, then applies under the guideline for its sector. The NLC’s performance targets are to adjudicate within 150 calendar days and to pay approved grants within 60 days. It also publishes lists of grantee payments.
• Research-based funding. Here the NLC identifies a need and funds it without an application. The annual report cites R70 million for HIV programmes and R14.6 million for an emergency response in the Western Cape.

If you run a non-profit, the NLC’s apply-for-funding page lists the four sectors and links to each sector’s guideline document. Read the guideline before you register, as funding rules and calls for applications change from one cycle to the next.

For an ordinary player, the practical point is this. Your ticket money reaches a community project only after it has passed through the operator, the trust fund, a distributing agency and a payment process. Each step has its own timetable, so a slow year for grants can follow a strong year for ticket sales. The NLC publishes its grantee payment lists, so anyone can check which organisations were funded instead of relying on headline totals.

The published figures, year by year

The NLC Annual Report 2025/26 gives a five-year view of what reached good causes and what came in from expired prizes. The years are financial years ending 31 March.

The latest year was a low one. Grant allocations fell to R428 million from R987 million, and the report records 874 disbursements to grantees. The share of ticket sales paid to the NLC dropped to R1,839,584,000 from R1,960,452,000, which the report attributes to the lower percentage paid during Ithuba’s temporary licence, even though total ticket sales topped R7.5 billion. Over the longer run, more than R31 billion has gone to good causes since 2000, according to figures iGaming Business attributes to the NLC.

The figures also come with scrutiny. In October 2025 Proclamation R293 of 2025 widened the Special Investigating Unit’s probe into the NLC, first authorised under Proclamation R.32 of 2020. The report also lists betting on National Lottery outcomes as a significant threat to the money raised, a dispute covered in our explainer on Lucky Numbers bets. For current funding rounds and the operator’s licence terms, check nlcsa.org.za, and follow developments in our news section.

Buying a ticket helps fund good causes, but it is still gambling, and the odds of a big win are very long. You must be 18 or older to play. If spending on draws is becoming a problem, the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation helpline is free and open 24/7 on 0800 006 008.