Lotto 6aus49 in Niedersachsen

Lower Saxony sits in the upper middle range for Lotto stakes: €45 per capita, 3rd place out of 16, behind Saarland (€57) and Schleswig-Holstein (€47). In absolute terms, the roughly €370 million in play volume makes Lower Saxony Germany's third- or fourth-strongest Lotto state, depending on the year. As a share of disposable income, that is 0.16 percent, a solid middle position.

What sets Lower Saxony apart from all other states in Lotto terms is its three-foundation architecture. While almost every other state either uses a ministry model, a single foundation or a direct flow into the state budget, Lower Saxony split its Lotto-money distribution into three specialised foundations in 2008:

The Stiftung Niedersachsen for arts and culture, the Lower Saxony Bingo Environmental Foundation for nature and environmental projects, and the Lower Saxony Lotto Sports Foundation for sport and integration. This split came out of the dissolution of the joint Lower Saxony Lotto Foundation at the end of 2008, which passed its tasks on to the three specialised foundations.

The Lotto Sports Foundation is the sister foundation with the broadest remit. It has €3 million to €3.5 million in funding available each year and runs six of its own funding programmes, plus a general funding option of up to €300,000 per application. The support lands directly in grassroots sport: sports clubs can apply for up to €3,000 for sports equipment or new kit, with a funding rate of 50 percent.

One Lower Saxony speciality is the explicit funding goal of integration. The Lotto Sports Foundation supports not only sport itself, but also the integration of people with migration backgrounds through sports projects. That is a rare direct link in Germany between Lotto money and integration work at foundation level. One concrete example was the festival "Bunt statt Braun" by sports clubs from Hanover, which was supported by the Lotto Sports Foundation.

Toto-Lotto Niedersachsen also has its own company history. Today's company was created in 1993 from the merger of the Niedersächsische Fußball-Toto Gesellschaft and the Niedersächsische Zahlenlotto GmbH. So if you hand in a ticket in Lower Saxony, you do not fund one single foundation as in Berlin (LOTTO-Stiftung), or a state budget as in Bavaria. You distribute your money across three specialised pots. That split is transparent, but also fragmented. Anyone applying for funding has to go to the right foundation, depending on the project.