The Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan are certainly on to a good thing, after National Lottery operator Camelot – the business they're in the middle of buying – announced their highest increase in sales for a decade.

Seems there's good money in ploughing cash into worthy causes, as Camelot notched up sales of £5.5 billion to the end of March this year, compared to £5.15 billion for the preceding period. Though to believe that people are buying lottery tickets in the knowledge that their hard-earned wonga is going towards some old folks' poetry project is not entirely accurate.

More than likely they want a small piece of the millions of pounds up for grabs every week. Or the £56 million that Nigel Page and his partner Justine Laycock won in Camelot's EuroMillions lottery in February.

But with such a lucrative business, which clearly does reap some dividend for its shareholders, it's a pity to see a bunch of Canadian teachers sorting out their pension plans with a business that owes its entire success to the British public.

The pension fund, which has offices in London, Toronto, and New York, is an independent organisation responsible for investing the fund and administering the pensions of 289,000 active and retired teachers in Ontario. Strangely to me, the teachers have a history of investment in different UK businesses.

In the past they've invested in Acorn Care and Education, Bristol International Airport, Birmingham Airport, Scotia Gas Networks, InterGen and Thomas More Square Estate. The fund owns around 26.7% of Northumbrian Water. I wonder how they figure that one in downtown Ottawa.

And though the move is validation of Camelot's success, there is a part of me that wonders why all the good businesses that start up in the UK eventually fall into foreign ownership. I'm thinking newspapers like The Times, our chocolate giant Cadbury and now Camelot. It seems there's no incentive to even consider staying British, which is a pity.

If I had my way and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan came along and wanted a piece of Camelot, I'd tell them to do what everyone else in the same boat needs to do... buy a lottery ticket.