IT was fingers crossed today as the Lord Mayor of York launched TV Dreams, the latest National Lottery Instants game, at the York convenience store where dreams did come true.

Coun Mick Bradley was at the Ten O'Clock Shop, Poppleton Road - where a lottery syndicate last year scooped £2.1 million - to kick off the new game.

TV Dreams is interactively linked to the BBC show, The National Lottery Big Ticket.

Punters buy a £2 scratch card from National Lottery outlets and have three ways to win.

The first is by scratching off the panels in the normal way. But if they reveal three TVs, they then watch the TV show to match their card number to win £10,000. If they reveal three stars, they can join the studio audience for a chance to scoop £100,000.

But there was criticism of the Lord Mayor's role in launching TV Dreams from North Yorkshire scratch card addict Beverley Miles.

Beverley, of Kings Road, Harrogate, who has spent thousands of pounds on the National Lottery, has been unable to kick her ruinous habit.

Her mother, Marjorie, said Beverley would not think it was appropriate for the Lord Mayor to associate himself with the new gambling game.

She said: "I do not think it is right for a person of his standing to be encouraging gambling. Beverley is still addicted despite trying all sorts of things to help her."

A spokesman for Gamblers Anonymous said: "Gambling does have a downside. Any increase in the availability of gambling has led to an increase in the number of people attending Gamblers Anonymous at a later stage."

A spokesman for the Lord Mayor said he fully supported the lottery because anything that gave so much money to good causes could not be a bad thing.

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