(Sports) Senior Aust'n sport officials throw support behind Olympic lottery system

Senior Australian Olympic officials have thrown their support behind a lottery system to finance Olympic athletes.

Under the proposed lottery, people in Australia would be able to buy lottery tickets with proceeds going towards funding sport and the arts.

John Bertrand, President of Swimming Australia, said the lottery would raise between 22 and 37 million U.S. dollars in additional funding for Olympic campaigns.

A similar system is used in Britain and has been credited as partly responsible for Britain's rise to prominence in the Olympics, as the nation increased its medal tally from 15 medals, including just one gold, at the 1996 games to 67 medals at Rio in 2016 including 27 gold.

Bertrand said introducing a lottery in Australia was "an obvious solution" and extra funding would "absolutely" guarantee Olympic success.

"A lotto system has been in place in the UK for many years now and the dividends have been obvious. We've never really considered the Brits a sporting nation but at the Olympics they've done extremely well and part of that is the funding base they have," Bertrand told Melbourne radio station Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) on Monday.

Australia recorded it worst medal tally in 24 years at the Rio Olympics, taking home just 29 medals, eight of which were gold, less than half the country's best Olympic result at Athens in 2004 when it won 17 gold medals.

John Wylie, chairman of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), joined Bertrand in supporting the lottery, saying it would likely be an online venture run by an established lottery operator.

"We'll make sure that any lottery along these lines is run in a highly regulated fashion that is consistent with responsible gambling," Wylie told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

"We're very conscious that we want to raise more revenue for Australian sport but we want to do it in a way that's responsible.

"We think there is an opportunity here to do something good for the country to put more money into high performance programs but also community sporting programs, which are underfunded.

"We would outsource the management of the lottery itself to an established operator, someone who has experience and acumen in this area."

The ASC currently receives 190 million U.S. dollars in grants every year, a figure Wylie said is falling further and further behind the funding provided to Olympic campaigns in other countries.

"The fact is we are underfunded... (but) we are not just sticking our hand out and looking for more taxpayer funds," he said.

"We are unambiguously and unashamedly standing up for sport and saying this matters." Endit