of the country's national sports federations.

A major share of that cash -- $4.2 million -- went to athletics, to be distributed among 195 top athletes for living and training costs.

The Amateur Swimming Association accepted a cool $3.2 million and even rowing, while representative of Britain's only gold medal at the last Olympics through Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent but hardly considered a mainstream sport, raked in $1.9 million.

Where did all the money come from? Government grants? Corporate sponsorship? Absolutely not. It represented just a small portion of the huge profits being accumulated by Britain's wildly successful National Lottery -- the same kind of lottery which has been repeatedly rejected by politicians and church leaders on this Island.

While gambling in almost every other form is legal -- from betting shops to raffles to bingo, none of which benefit the community at large -- for some inexplicable reason a lottery has been consistently ruled out.

And, considering how other countries are now prospering from such a programme, it's a decision we may live to regret.

Like it or not, Bermuda's sports facilities in general are woeful. Our national sports, soccer and cricket, have in the last five or ten years gone nowhere, except perhaps backwards. And while social problems have much to do with this decline, a severe lack of funding has also been a major contributory factor.

A national lottery wouldn't be a panacea to all of our sporting ills. For a start, we couldn't hope to raise the sort of cash being collected in larger countries. But there's no doubt it could help ease the financial headache from which almost all of our national sports federations suffer. And, as in England, sport would by no means be the only beneficiary.

Chairman of England's Lottery Awards Panel is the former England footballer, Trevor Brooking, whom Bermuda's own national coach, Clyde Best, will no doubt remember from his playing days with West Ham.

It was Brooking who invited major sports bodies to apply for lottery funds last January by producing a long-term performance plan detailing their aims and objectives. The money allotted this week was for the first year of their performance plans only.

"It's a level of funding that British sports has never experienced before,'' said Brooking.

The huge hand-out also brought an enthusiastic response from Labour's charismatic Sports Minister, Tony Banks.

"There's something about sport and its effect on the psychology of the nation,'' said Banks. "When we are going well everyone feels good. If we are looking for the feel-good factor, as politicians do, this is one way we can get the feel-good factor.'' Bermudians know all about that.

The good feeling Banks refers to was very much in evidence a few years ago during Bermuda's short but sweet campaign in the preliminary stages of soccer's World Cup. Politicians from opposite sides came together with the rest of the Island in an all-too-rare display of unity.

Sadly, there have been few such waves of enthusiasm since.

Bermuda, as we mentioned, has some unique lottery problems, not least its size, which might prevent the realisation of large profits such as those being enjoyed elsewhere. But by allowing visitors to partake in such a scheme, it would still have enormous potential.

At the very least, it's an idea deserving of far more consideration than has been afforded in the past.