NATIONAL Lottery operator Camelot should hand over a bigger slice of its profits to charity, MPs demanded today.

They also urged the end of the ban on the advertising of betting shops and bingo halls so they can recover some of the trade lost to the lottery.

An all-party Commons committee said the runaway success of the national flutter was far greater than expected and the firm was raking in much more cash than predicted.

And the MPs say some of this extra profit should go to charities hard hit by the shift of punter money away from their lotteries to the National Lottery.

In particular, the Commons Heritage Committee says the interest earned on unclaimed prize money should go straight to charity.

Overall it recommends that: "Since the level of spending by the public on lottery tickets and scratchcards is far higher than originally expected, it follows that the return on capital employed is also going to be a great deal higher than anticipated.

"We recommend that Camelot should consider giving a suitable proportion of their additional, unanticipated profits to charity."

So far charities have received £150 million - 5.6pc of its total take.

The committee also calls for major relaxations of the rules governing betting and bingo so they can better fight back against the competition from the lottery which has hit their operations hard.

The MPs want betting to be allowed on the outcome of the National Lottery and the end of the ban on advertising by betting shops and bingo halls.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.