National Lottery
For the National Lottery of Ireland, see An Post National Lottery Company. |
A "play here!" sign outside a newsagent, incorporating the National Lottery's logo of a stylised hand with crossed fingers. |
The National Lottery is the United Kingdom's largest lottery. It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the franchise was granted in 1994 and again in 2001. The lottery is regulated by The National Lottery Commission. The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in 2002 designed to combat falling sales. This resulted in the main game being renamed Lotto
. However, the games as a collective are still known as The National Lottery''. It is one of the most popular forms of
gambling in the United Kingdom.
All prizes are paid as a lump sum and are tax-free. Of every
pound (£) spent on Lottery games, Camelot receives 4.5 pence (p) to cover operating costs and 0.5p profit, 50p goes to the prize fund, 28p to good causes, 12p to Government and 5p to retailers as commission.
Several games operate under the National Lottery brand:
Lotto
Six numbers are drawn from a range of 1–49, as well as a further bonus ball. Players choose six different numbers. Prizes are awarded for three to six matches of the six, along with five matches and a match for the bonus ball. Anyone matching all six balls wins the
jackpot; the chance of doing so is 1 in 13,983,816 (assuming the drawing of the balls is completely random so that all possible combinations have an equal chance of occurring). The price for a ticket is £1.
The draw is conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Saturday draws started on
November 19,
1994, under the name 'National Lottery'. The first Wednesday draw was on
February 5,
1997. All draws are shown live on
BBC One in the UK, with the Saturday draw shown as a segment in a range of different Lottery branded gameshows throughout the year.
The game was rebranded 'Lotto' in
2002.
Camelot state that 3 ball prize winners are calculated first, this is normally £10, the remaining prize fund is then divided as shown in the table below and split equally with the number of winners for each selection:
| Match | Prize!Odds of winning | | 3 numbers | £10 | 1: 57 |
| 4 numbers | 22% of remaining fund | 1: 1,033 |
| 5 numbers | 10% of remaining fund | 1: 55,492 |
| 5 numbers and bonus ball | 16% of remaining fund | 1: 2,330,636 |
| 6 numbers | 52% of remaining fund | 1: 13,983,816 |
Lotto Extra
Launched on 13 November 2000, players playing the main Lotto draw had the option to enter the Lotto Extra draw at the same time with the same six numbers. The price for including Lotto Extra on a ticket was an additional £1 per entry â€" it was not possible to play Lotto Extra separately. Six numbers were drawn from a range of 1–49. If you matched all six balls you win the jackpot; the chance of doing so was 1 in 13,983,816. There were no other prizes. If no one matched all six numbers the jackpot rolled over until it was won or reached £50 million, when, if no one matched all six then the prize would roll down to players matching five, if none then four, if none then three, etc.
The draw was conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays. All Saturday draws were shown live on
BBC One in the UK, immediately after the main Lotto draw, whereas due to lack of time on Wednesday draws, just the pre-selected winning numbers were displayed onscreen after the Lotto draw.
The game was rebranded 'Lotto Extra' from the launch name of 'Lottery Extra' at the same time as the main game. Following poor sales for the 'Lotto Extra', Camelot retired the game on Saturday July 8th 2006.
Lotto Hot Picks
Lotto Hotpicks also uses the main Lotto draw for its numbers, but differs in how the players' numbers are chosen. While in both Lotto and Lotto Extra six numbers are chosen and prizes are available on partial matches, in Hot Picks the player chooses fewer numbers, but must match all of them to win. The odds and payouts are as follows
| Match | Prize!Odds of winning | | 1 number | £5 | 1: 9 |
| 2 numbers | £40 | 1: 79 |
| 3 numbers | £450 | 1: 922 |
| 4 numbers | £7 000 | 1: 14,126 |
| 5 numbers | £130 000 | 1: 317,814 |
Thunderball
Thunderball was launched on
June 7,
1999. Players pick five main numbers from 1 to 34 and one 'Thunderball' number from 1 to 14, for an entry fee of £1.00. Draws currently take place every Saturday and Wednesday. The first mid-week Thunderball was on
October 17,
2002.
| Match | Prize!Odds of winning | | 1 + Thunderball | £5 | 1: 33 |
| 2 + Thunderball | £10 | 1: 107 |
| 3 numbers | £10 | 1: 74 |
| 3 + Thunderball | £20 | 1: 960 |
| 4 numbers | £100 | 1: 2,067 |
| 4 + Thunderball | £250 | 1: 26,866 |
| 5 numbers | £5 000 | 1: 299,661 |
| 5 + Thunderball | £250 000 | 1: 3,895,584 |
Dream Number
Dream Number was launched on
July 15, 2006 to replace the retired
Lotto Extra game. Dream Number involves generating a random seven digit number for entry into the draw. It can be played independently of
Lotto, or if played with
Lotto one Dream Number is generated per ticket, not per lotto entry. Unlike other
Lotto games, it is not possible to choose the number entered, and the order that the numbers are drawn out, as the numbers must be matched in order in order to win. All money raised for good causes from Dream Number will go towards the
2012 Summer Olympics and
2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
| Match | Prize!Odds of winning | | 1st number only | £2 | 1: 12 |
| 1st 2 numbers | £10 | 1: 112 |
| 1st 3 numbers | £100 | 1: 1,112 |
| 1st 4 numbers | £500 | 1: 11,112 |
| 1st 5 numbers | £5 000 | 1: 111,112 |
| 1st 6 numbers | £50 000 | 1: 1,111,112 |
| all 7 numbers | £500 000 | 1: 10,000,000 |
|
Source: National Lottery Players GuideScratchcards
As well as draw tickets, the National Lottery sells (through newsagents, supermarkets, and so on)
scratchcards.
These are small pieces of card where an area has been covered by thin layer of opaque (and usually designed according to the particular card) latex, but can be scratched off. Under this area are concealed the items/pictures that must be 'found' in order to win.
The generic scratchcard requires the player to match three of the same prize amounts. If this is accomplished, they win that amount, the highest possible being £100,000. Other scratchcards involve matching symbols, pictures or words.
The majority of National Lottery scratchcards are sold for £1. Larger scratchcards with two or more chances to win or a larger than usual maximum cash prize, i.e. £250,000, cost £2.
EuroMillions
On Saturday
7 February 2004 the lottery organisation Camelot launched a pan-
European lottery: EuroMillions. The first draw took place on Friday
13 February 2004 in
Paris. The UK,
France and
Spain were involved initially. Lotteries from
Austria,
Belgium,
Ireland,
Luxembourg,
Portugal and
Switzerland joined the draw on
8 October 2004 and the draws are currently made in Paris.
Olympic Lottery
Following the success of London's bid to host the
2012 Summer Olympics, Olympic Lottery Scratchcards were launched on
27 July 2005 under the brand name "Go for Gold". 28p of the price of £1 goes to the
Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund, and the scratchcards are intended to raise £750 million towards the cost of running the games.
The National Lottery has so far raised £17 billion for good causes, a programme which distributes money via grants. 28% of lottery revenue goes towards the fund, along with all unclaimed prizes. Additionally, 12% goes to the state. The prize fund is 45% of revenue, with the remaining 15% going towards running costs and profits for the lottery organisers and ticket sellers.
The distribution of money to good causes is not the responsibility of the operator (Camelot). It is the responsibility of The National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF), administered by the government
Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Winning tickets must be claimed within 180 days of the draw taking place. If a prize is unclaimed within that time, it is distributed through the Lotto's Good Causes fund. The highest unclaimed prize distributed this way to date was a winning ticket worth £9,476,995, which expired at 17.30 GMT on Monday, 2 January 2006 [
1]. This ticket was the 24th prize in excess of one million pounds to be unclaimed.
The National Lottery is regulated by the
National Lottery Commission - a
non-departmental public body reporting to the
Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Until April 1st 1999 the National Lottery was regulated by the
Office of the National Lottery (known by the
acronym OFLOT).
The Lottery was set up in 1993 under the
National Lottery etc Act 1993 ([
2]) and was reformed under the
National Lottery Act 1998 ([
3]) and the
National Lottery Act 2006 ([
4])
There are eleven different machines that can be used for the Lotto draw. Which machine is used is selected at random, and is announced just prior to the draw. The machine names are Merlin, Arthur, Galahad, Vyvyan, Lancelot, Garnet, Topaz, Opal, Amethyst, Moonstone and Pearl.
*
Millennium Commission*
National Lottery website.
*
National Lottery online sydicate .
*
National Lottery Commission.
*
Department for Culture / NLDF website.
*
Heritage Lottery Fund.
National Lottery in the news
*
The lottery's winners and losers â€" a
BBC news article about the National Lottery's first ten years.
*
London's Olympic Agenda from
BBC News.
*
"Ten years of the Lottery",
New Statesman special supplement,
8 November 2004.
*
The Lottery â€" it shouldn't be you â€"
The Times,
January 27 2006 â€" an article scathing of the Lottery.
