National Lottery (United Kingdom)
| File:TheNationalLotteryLogo.png | |
| Region | United Kingdom and Isle of Man |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1994 |
| Operator | Camelot Group |
| Regulated By | National Lottery Commission |
| Highest Jackpot | £161,653,000[1] |
| Odds of winning the jackpot | 13,983,816 to 1 (Lotto), 8,060,598 to 1 (Thunderball), 116,531,799 to 1 (Euromillions) |
| Number of Games | 6 |
| Shown on | BBC One |
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.
It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then prime minister John Major in 1994.
All prizes are paid as a lump sum and are tax-free. Of all money spent on National Lottery games, 50% goes to the prize fund, 28% to 'good causes' as set out by Parliament (though some of this is considered by some to be a stealth tax[2] levied to support the Big Lottery Fund, a fund constituted to support public spending[3]), 12% to the UK Government as duty, 5% to retailers as commission, and a total of 5% to operator Camelot, with 4.5% to cover operating costs and 0.5% as profit.[4] Lottery tickets and scratch cards may be bought only by people of at least 16 years of age.
History
A statute of 1698 provided that in England lotteries were by default illegal unless specifically authorised by statute. A 1934 Act, further liberalised in 1956 and 1976, legalised small lotteries. The UK's state-franchised lottery was set up under government licence by the government of John Major in 1993.[5] The National Lottery is franchised to a private operator; the Camelot Group was awarded the franchise on 25 May 1994.[6] The first draw took place on 19 November 1994 with a television programme presented by Noel Edmonds. The first numbers drawn were 30, 3, 5, 44, 14 and 22, the bonus was 10, and seven jackpot winners shared a prize of £5,874,778.[7]
Tickets became available on the Isle of Man on 2 December 1999 at the request of Tynwald.
The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in 2002 designed to combat falling sales. The main game was renamed Lotto, and the National Lottery Extra became Lotto Extra. The stylized crossed-fingers logo was modified.[8] 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.
In November 2009 Camelot replaced its older Lotto draw machines. The new machines are named Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Merlin, reusing the names of older machines. At the same time, new machines for the Thunderball game were introduced. The new Lotto machines are the Magnum II model, manufactured by SmartPlay International Inc., and the new Thunderball machines are the SmartPlay Halogen II model.[9][10]
Eligibility
- Players must be 16 years or older
- Tickets may be bought in person at approved premises in the UK, or online over the Internet
- Online purchase of tickets from the National Lottery website is restricted to people who have a UK bank account (for debit card or direct debit purposes), and are resident in the UK or Isle of Man, and are physically present in the UK or Isle of Man when making the ticket purchase.
- The ticket purchaser for a syndicate, typically its manager, must meet the eligibility criteria for ticket purchase. Syndicate members must be aged 16 or over
- Lottery tickets are not transferable, so commercial syndicates (i.e. where extra charges are levied over and above the total face value of the tickets purchased) are not permitted
Games
Several games operate under the National Lottery brand:
Current games
Lotto
Players buy tickets with their choice of six different numbers between 1 and 49; there is provision for random numbers to be generated automatically for those who do not wish to choose, known as 'Lucky Dip'.
In the draw, six numbered balls are drawn without replacement from a set of 49 balls numbered from 1 to 49. A further Bonus Ball is also drawn, which affects only players who match five numbers.
Prizes are awarded to players who match at least three of the six drawn numbers, with prizes increasing for matching more of the drawn numbers. All players who match all six drawn numbers win equal shares of the jackpot; the chance of doing so is 1 in 13,983,816. If four, five, or six balls are matched, the relevant prize is divided equally between all who match that many balls. If no player matches all six numbers, the jackpot is added to that of the next Lotto draw—a Rollover. This accumulation was limited to three consecutive draws until 10 February 2011, when it was increased to four. Rollovers are frequent, with for example 20 Wednesday (39%) and 13 Saturday rollovers (25%) in 2011 (fewer tickets are sold on Wednesdays than Saturdays, increasing the probability of a rollover). "Treble rollovers"—two consecutive rollovers—are much less common. The first quadruple rollover draw occurred on Saturday 29 September 2012 with a jackpot of £19.5 million.[11] In the event of a quadruple rollover, if no tickets match all 6 main numbers, the jackpot will then be shared between the tickets that match 5 numbers and the bonus ball. On Saturday 5 November 2011 there was a Lotto Super Draw for the National Lottery awards for £10 million; if there had been no winners the jackpot would not have rolled over.
The entry fee to the Lotto draw was set at £1 per board from its introduction. Camelot announced that the price was to double to £2 from 3 October 2013, with prizes restructured.[12] The announcement was followed by news that large bonuses were to be set aside for management pay, which drew criticism.[13]
The arrival of the new lotto means bigger Jackpots with an estimated average of £1.1 million extra for Saturday's draw, and £400,000 on Wednesday's draw and people matching 3 numbers receive an extra £15, up from £10 before and an extra £40 for matching 4 numbers. Match 5 numbers you will now receive £500 less, and £50,000 less when matching 5 numbers + the bonus ball Vs. the old payout system.[14] The first two Saturday's will have guaranteed Jackpots of £10 million.
The draw is conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays, except that a draw on Christmas Day is moved to Christmas Eve. Saturday draws started on 19 November 1994, under the name 'National Lottery'; the first Wednesday draw was on 5 February 1997. All draws are shown live on the BBC One television channel, with the Saturday draw often shown as a live segment in a range of different pre-recorded Lottery-branded game shows throughout the year.
Lotto was originally called The National Lottery, but was renamed Lotto in an update in 2002 after ticket sales decreased. Lotto is by far the most popular draw, with around 31 million tickets sold for every Saturday[15] and 18 million sold for the Wednesday draw.[16] The largest jackpot won to date by a single ticket was £22,590,829 on 10 June 1995, when Paul Maddison and Mark Gardiner, two double-glazing businessmen from St Leonards-on-Sea, shared the jackpot after buying the winning ticket together. The largest jackpot as of October 2013[update] was £42,008,610 on 6 January 1996; three anonymous winners each won £14,002,870.
On 5 October 2013, Camelot launched "New Lotto" - one of the biggest changes to the game in recent history.[17] As part of the refresh, the ticket price doubled to £2, prizes for matching numbers was modified and a new Lotto Raffle was introduced, with at least 50 winners of £20,000 per draw. [18] The announcement and launch of the refreshed Lotto game caused controversy due to the price increase (dubbed as a "tax on the poor") and a drop in some of the prizes.[19] The new game launched with a £10,000,000 jackpot and 1,000 Lotto Raffle winners of £20,000.[20]
| Matching numbers | % of fund | Odds of winning |
|---|---|---|
| 4 numbers | 22% | 1,031 to 1 |
| 5 numbers | 10% | 55,490 to 1 |
| 5 numbers and bonus ball | 16% | 2,330,635 to 1 |
| 6 numbers | 52% | 13,983,815 to 1 |
| The overall odds of winning any prize are 54 to 1. | ||
The Lotto prize fund is 45 percent of draw sales in a normal week. However, the long-term average percentage is almost exactly 46 percent due to an occasional Super Draw paid for from a Super Draw reserve fund, set aside each draw. The three-ball prize winners, with odds of 56 to 1, receive £25 each; the remaining prize fund is then divided as shown in the table and split equally with the number of winners for each selection:
Lotto Hotpicks
| Match | Prize | Odds of winning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 number | £5 | 1 in 9 |
| 2 numbers | £40 | 1 in 79 |
| 3 numbers | £450 | 1 in 922 |
| 4 numbers | £7,000 | 1 in 14,126 |
| 5 numbers | £130,000 | 1 in 317,814 |
Lotto Hotpicks uses the main Lotto draw for its numbers but is a different game. The player chooses both the numbers and the number of draw balls they want to try to match (up to a maximum of five balls). However, if the player does not match all the numbers chosen, they are not a winner. The National Lottery describes Hotpicks as "five games in one", because the player has a choice of five ways of playing the game, each offering different odds and payouts.
The entry fee to the Lotto Hotpicks draw is £1 per board.
Thunderball
The Thunderball draw requires players to pick five main numbers from 1 to 39 and one 'Thunderball' number from 1 to 14 for an entry fee of £1 per board. Prizes may be won by matching the main numbers, with matches of the Thunderball number winning higher prizes. The top prize of the game, now £500,000, is won by matching all five main numbers as well as the Thunderball. There is also a new £3 prize for matching the Thunderball alone. Draws now take place on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and are televised live on BBC One.
The first Thunderball draw was held on 12 June 1999 and the draw was originally only held on Saturdays. The rules of Thunderball changed substantially on 9 May 2010. Before this date, Thunderball matches were drawn from numbers 1 to 34; there was no prize for matching the Thunderball number alone, and the top prize (for matching 5 main numbers and the Thunderball) was half the current jackpot at £250,000. After this date, the Friday draw was introduced in addition to the Wednesday and Saturday draws. Following the change of rules, while the chance of winning anything on Thunderball has more than doubled, the chance of winning the top prizes has more than halved.
The odds and payouts are as follows:
| Old (1999–2010) | New (after May 2010)[21] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match | Prize | Odds of winning | Prize | Odds of winning |
| Thunderball only | - | - | £3 | 1 in 29 |
| 1 + Thunderball | £5 | 1 in 33 | £5 | 1 in 35 |
| 2 + Thunderball | £10 | 1 in 107 | £10 | 1 in 135 |
| 3 numbers | £10 | 1 in 74 | £10 | 1 in 111 |
| 3 + Thunderball | £20 | 1 in 960 | £20 | 1 in 1,437 |
| 4 numbers | £100 | 1 in 2,067 | £100 | 1 in 3,647 |
| 4 + Thunderball | £250 | 1 in 26,866 | £250 | 1 in 47,415 |
| 5 numbers | £5,000 | 1 in 299,661 | £5,000 | 1 in 620,046 |
| 5 + Thunderball | £250,000 | 1 in 3,895,584 | £500,000 | 1 in 8,060,598 |
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. The draws are currently made in Paris and shown recorded in the UK on BBC One, approximately 3 hours after the draw has taken place. The entry fee to the EuroMillions draw is £2.00 per board. The odds of winning the Jackpot are 116,531,799 to 1.
Scratchcards and online Instant Wins
As well as tickets for the Draw Games, the National Lottery also sells scratchcards.
These are small pieces of card where an area has been covered by a thin layer of opaque (and usually designed according to the particular card) latex that can be scratched off. Under this area are concealed the items/pictures that must be found in order to win. Scratchcards can be purchased in most newsagents and supermarkets.
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 currently being £4,000,000 on a £10 scratchcard.[22] Other scratchcards involve matching symbols, pictures or words. The highest possible prize currently for a £1 scratchcard is £100,000.
Initially, all scratchcards were sold for £1. Over the years, scratchcards that range in price from £2 to £10 have become available. More expensive scratchcards are larger and offer more games with higher-value prizes. Some scratchcards even have jackpots other than one-off payments, such as a yearly sum or a car. Odds for winning a top prize on a scratchcard depend greatly on how many have been sold and whether there is any top prize scratchcards in circulation at time of purchase. Generally, the odds of winning a top prize are around 1 in 3,500,000 on most scratchcards.
Recently, Camelot have introduced a £10 scratchcard with the chance to instantly win £4,000,000.[22]
Instant Win games are online games where the player can win prizes instantly. Some Instant Win games are similar in format to scratchcards, with others involving more interactive play such as dice-rolling or matching special symbols. It is made clear that the Instant Win games are solely based on luck and that no skill or judgement is involved in winning in try or paid games. Players must be registered in order to buy or try an Instant Win. Try games are free of charge and no payouts are made in respect of any prizes which may be won on a try game. As with scratchcards there are a wide variety of Instant Win games available with different odds of winning prizes. Cost to play these games vary from as low as 25p, to a maximum currently of £5 per play. The current highest possible prize to win on Instant Wins is £1 Million on a £5 game. Odds of winning a top prize vary on each Instant Win game, and may be higher or lower than their scratchcard counterpart.
UK Millionaire Raffle
Each EuroMillions ticket purchased in the UK contains a unique raffle number, consisting of three letters and six numbers. There is one winner per draw (with the exception of a special draw), with each winner winning a usually fixed £1,000,000.[23] Odds of winning depend on the number of tickets sold for that particular draw in the UK, but are generally 1 in 3,500,000 on Tuesdays and 1 in 9,200,000 on Fridays.[24]
Lotto Raffle
Following the changes to the Lotto game, Camelot introduced Lotto raffle which is a ticket bought automatically with a Lotto ticket. Each raffle number consists of a colour and 8 numbers (e.g. AQUA 4579 2965). Each winning raffle number wins a fixed amount of £20,000. For each draw the list of winning numbers is published online, along with a map of where the winners are by region.[25] The number of winners varies during rollovers:
- Ordinary Draw: 50 winners
- Single Rollover: 100 winners
- Double Rollover: 150 winners
- Triple Rollover: 200 winners
- Quadruple Rollover: 250 winners[18]
For the two launch night draws (5th and 12th October) there were 1,000 winners per draw. [20][26]
Discontinued games
Lotto Extra
| Match | Prize | Odds of winning |
|---|---|---|
| 6 numbers | Jackpot | 1 in 13,983,815 |
| The maximum jackpot was £50m | ||
Lotto Extra was introduced on 13 November 2000 and was originally called The National Lottery Extra but renamed Lotto Extra in 2002. It was an add on from the main draw where a player could select "lotto Extra same numbers" or a lucky dip. Players would pick six numbers from 49 and there were no lower tier prizes so a perfect match was required. The last draw was on 8 July 2006 and it was replaced by Dream Number.
Dream Number
| Match | Prize | Odds of winning |
|---|---|---|
| 1st number only | £2 | 1 in 11.2 |
| 1st 2 numbers | £10 | 1 in 111.2 |
| 1st 3 numbers | £100 | 1 in 1,111.2 |
| 1st 4 numbers | £500 | 1 in 11,112 |
| 1st 5 numbers | £5,000 | 1 in 111,112 |
| 1st 6 numbers | £50,000 | 1 in 1,111,112 |
| all 7 numbers | £500,000 | 1 in 10,000,000 |
| The overall odds of winning any prize were 1 in 10. Source: National Lottery Players Guide | ||
Dream Number was launched on 15 July 2006. It involved a random seven digit number generated for entry into the main draw. It was played independently of Lotto, or if played with Lotto one Dream Number was generated per ticket, not per Lotto entry. The cost of entry was £1. A dream number was printed on every Lotto ticket bought, whether the player had chosen to enter it into the draw or not. Unlike other Lotto games, it was not possible to choose the number entered, and the order that the numbers were drawn was significant, as the numbers had to be matched in the same order for the player to win. Players had to match with the first number in order to start winning prizes (ranging from £2 to £500,000), which meant that 90% of players lost as soon as the first ball was drawn. Draws took place on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but only the Saturday draw was televised. The Wednesday draw took place prior to the live TV show and the winning dream number was announced during the show. All money raised for good causes from Dream Number went towards the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The National Lottery closed the Dream Number game on Wednesday 9 February 2011, which was also the date of the last Dream Number draw.
Daily Play
| Match | Prize | Odds of winning |
|---|---|---|
| 0 numbers | £1 Daily Play Lucky Dip Ticket |
1 in 11.5 |
| 4 numbers | £5 | 1 in 22.3 |
| 5 numbers | £30 | 1 in 222.6 |
| 6 numbers | £300 | 1 in 6,343.1 |
| 7 numbers | £30,000 | 1 in 888,030 |
| The overall odds of winning a prize were 1 in 7.4 Source: National Lottery Daily Play Game Rules & Procedures | ||
The Daily Play draw could be played every day except Sunday and Christmas Day. By selecting seven numbers between 1 and 27, players could win anything from a free lucky dip to £30,000. The draw gave its players the chance to win a free daily play lucky-dip for not matching any numbers in the draw. The entry fee to the Daily Play draw was £1 per board.
Daily Play draws were broadcast via a webcast. In addition, from March 2005 to October 2005, the Daily Play draw was broadcast live on Challenge TV in the Glory Ball show, hosted by Jean Anderson, James McCourt, Jayne Sharp and Nikki Cowan.[27]
The National Lottery Daily Play Draw ended on Friday, 6 May 2011.[28]
Lotto Plus 5
| Matching Numbers | Prize | Odds of winning |
|---|---|---|
| 3 numbers | £2.50 | 56.65592 to 1 |
| 4 numbers | £25 | 1,032.397 to 1 |
| 5 numbers | £250 | 55,491.33 to 1 |
| 5 numbers and bonus ball | £25,000 | 2,330,636 to 1 |
| 6 numbers | £250,000 | 13,983,815 to 1 |
| The overall odds of winning any prize is 52.65514 to 1 per draw. | ||
| The overall odds of winning any prize is 10.13855 to 1 per Plus 5 draw week. | ||
Lotto Plus 5 was introduced in 2010[29] to plug the gaps between the Wednesday and Saturday Lotto draws, meaning it takes place on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Players can enter by paying an extra £1 when buying their Lotto ticket, which enters the same ticket numbers into five separate draws. Each draw offers fixed prizes for matching 3, 4, 5 and 6 numbers, with the jackpot being worth £250,000. It has been estimated that the game produces an extra 500,000 Lotto winners every week. Along with the changes to the main Lotto game, plus 5 is being discontinued. The last Plus 5 draw was played on 1 October 2013, with the last date to buy a ticket being 23 September 2013.
Other ways to play
As well as by purchasing a ticket at a shop, tickets can be purchased many other ways.
Online
All National Lottery games can be played online after registering. There are two ways of playing the lotto online.
Direct Debit. Players can sign up by registering their bank account details and their saved numbers will be automatically entered. The National Lottery notifies winners by email if they have won although this will not be on the evening of the draw and notification is usually by 12 noon the following day. This method is only available for the main Lotto (also excluding Lotto Plus 5 on the same ticket) and Thunderball games.
Loaded Account. Funds are loaded into a player's account and are played as required. The National Lottery notifies winners by email if they have won on the draw games, or in the case of the lower prize Instant Wins, transfer the winnings to their account. The current minimum loading amount is £10.00 GBP.
Text
Players can play the Lotto, Thunderball, EuroMillions and Lotto HotPicks by text after registering their mobile phone number. The discontinued games Dream Number and Daily Play also allowed text entry.
Sky Active
Lotto and EuroMillions were once available for play through Sky Active; however, this service was discontinued in September 2009. Prior to its discontinuation, players could purchase up to eight weeks worth of tickets at a time.[30]
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". 28% of the price of £1 went to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund, and the scratchcards were intended to raise £750,000,000 (US$1.14 billion) towards the cost of staging the games.[31]
The National Lottery on television
The majority of National Lottery draws take place on live television. The first National Lottery show (entitled The National Lottery Live: The First Draw) was at 19:00 on Saturday 19 November 1994. Presented by Noel Edmonds, this was an hour long special, in which 49 contestants competed to become the first person to start the draw, the first person being 18-year-old Deborah Walsh. The first number ever to be drawn was 30. For its first few years, the TV show took the title The National Lottery Live, and was presented mainly by Anthea Turner or Bob Monkhouse. Other notable presenters during this period included Carol Smillie, Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. On 30 November 1996, live on BBC One, the draw machine failed to start.[32]
On 20 May 2006, during the draw on The National Lottery Jet Set that took place minutes before the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, several members of the group Fathers 4 Justice protested on the set causing the show to be taken off air for several minutes while the protesters were removed from the studio.[33][34]
Traditionally, the draws would take place in the BBC studio during the game show on a Saturday. However, in more recent years, the channel airing the lottery draw has prerecorded the non-draw parts of the show and then switched to 'National Lottery HQ', a designated studio for the live draws.
Wednesday draws used to have their own 10-minute slot on BBC One, which was hosted by various presenters in the National Lottery HQ Studio, some presenters included Gethin Jones, Christopher Biggins. The presenters included OJ Borg, Matt Johnson and Jenni Falconer. it is rarely presented by Myleene Klass and Scott Mills. It is Alan Dedicoat who provides the voice-over of announcing the balls drawn and sometimes interacting with the presenter, he is known as The Voice Of the Balls. As of 7 January 2012 there have been a total of 1678 draws which consist of 784 Wednesday draws and 894 Saturday draws. In a plan to spread BBC productions across the United Kingdom, all lottery shows will be relocating to BBC Scotland. UKTV Gold additionally hosted the Euromillions: Boom Bang show, which was broadcast every Friday. From January 2013, the Wednesday draws are no longer broadcast, and are available to watch exclusively on the National Lottery's website. There is still a results update on BBC One at 10:35pm.
National Lottery Xtra
Between 10 March 2008 and 1 February 2010, the "National Lottery Xtra" channel was broadcast on Freeview channel 45 for one hour a day. Programming included content from winners of the jackpot and National Lottery Good Causes projects, as well as behind-the-scenes footage on how the National Lottery was operated.
Good causes
It was announced during the live Saturday night draw show on 30 March 2007 that The National Lottery has so far raised £20 billion (US$39.2 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 50% of revenue, with the remaining 10% 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. Currently 8% is given to arts, sports and heritage via government agencies and the remaining 46% is given to charitable, health, education and environment causes by the Big Lottery Fund.[35]
The Heritage Lottery Fund was set up by the government in 1994 to provide money for "projects involving the local, regional and national heritage". The fund come from the money raised by the National Lottery's 'Good Causes'.[36] Since 1994, the Heritage Lottery Fund has given grants totalling approximately £4 billion to more than 26,000 projects.[36]
In 2004 on the 10th anniversary of the National Lottery, the National Lottery Awards were instituted as an annual event to provide recognition of the work of Lottery funded projects around the UK. Certain projects are selected as the best in particular categories. The trophies were designed and produced by Gaudio Awards.
Percentage return
The National Lottery is a jackpot system with the majority of winnings going to those few players who pick all six numbers. The average percentage return is the share of the ticket sales devoted to prize funds, about 45% (i.e., 45% of the money spent on tickets would be won in prizes). The spread of returns will be very wide and influenced by several factors that change week-by-week (e.g. the number of tickets sold, the "distinctiveness" and popularity of the winning numbers). Over an extremely long period (tens of millions of draws) the return on investment would approach the average, about 45%. Over a shorter period there is a very small chance of a big win, but otherwise an average return of less than 45%; a numerical experiment using 10,000 random sets of numbers each week for 3 years found that, had the tickets been bought, the rate of return would have been less than 30%.
In their book "Scenarios for Risk Management and Global Investment Strategies", ISBN 978-0-470-31924-6 (HB) John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2007, academics Rachel E S Ziemba and William T Ziemba say with regard to 6/49 lotteries, "Random numbers have an expected loss of about 55%. However, six-tuples of unpopular numbers have an edge with expected returns exceeding their cost by about 65%. The expected value rises and approaches $2.25 per dollar wagered when there are carryovers [UK term: rollovers]. Random numbers, such as those from lucky dip and quick pick, and popular numbers are worth more with carryovers but never have an advantage." They conclude that, due to the time that would be required to achieve success, "except for millionaires and pooled syndicates, it is not possible to use the unpopular numbers in a scientific way to beat the lotto and have high confidence of becoming rich; these aspiring millionaires will also most likely be residing in a cemetery when their distant heirs reach the goal".
Unclaimed prizes
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 National Lottery Distribution Fund. For all major prizes (£50,000 and over) approximately two weeks after the draw, if no claim has been received, the area in which the ticket was purchased is released.
The highest unclaimed prize distributed this way to date was a winning ticket worth £63,837,543.60 which was bought in Stevenage and Hitchin for the Euromillions draw of 8 June 2012.[37] This was a world record unclaimed prize. All investment income from unclaimed prizes also goes to good causes via the National Lottery Distribution Fund.[38]
Regulation
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 1 April 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[39] and was reformed under the National Lottery Act 1998[40] and the National Lottery Act 2006.[41]
The National Lottery is a member of the World Lottery Association.[42]
Machine appearances
The national lottery have a number of different machines and ball sets which are selected by either a celebrity or a member of the general public. This is used to randomise the process and create an independent selection of machinery to reduce the chance of human override. Below is a table of how many times each machine has appeared in the main National Lottery, or Lotto game.
As of Saturday 8 December 2012[43]
| Machine | Appearances |
|---|---|
| Guinevere1 | 304 |
| Arthur1/3/4 | 309 |
| Lancelot2/3 | 257 |
| Merlin2/4 | 166 |
| Galahad | 52 |
| Vyvyan | 48 |
| Amethyst | 172 |
| Moonstone | 66 |
| Opal | 56 |
| Topaz | 157 |
| Pearl | 32 |
| Garnet | 16 |
| Sapphire | 135 |
1Note, on the draw on Saturday 17 September 2011, they announced that Arthur with set of balls 3 was chosen, but they were using Guinevere due to technical difficulties. Arthur wasn't used again until the draw on Saturday 8 October 2011.
2Also note, on the draw on Saturday 14 April 2012, they announced that Merlin with set of balls 5 was chosen, but they were using Lancelot due to technical difficulties. Merlin wasn't used again until the draw on Saturday 8 December 2012.
3Also note, on the draw on Saturday 12 May 2012, they announced that Arthur with set of balls 5 was chosen, but they were using Lancelot due to technical difficulties. Arthur wasn't used again until the draw on Saturday 5 January 2013.
4Also note, on the draw on Saturday 31 August 2013, they announced that Arthur with set of balls 3 was chosen, but they were using Merlin due to technical difficulties. Arthur wasn't used again until the draw on Wednesday 18 September 2013.
Ball set uses
As of Saturday 8 December 2012[44]
| Set Number | Uses |
|---|---|
| 1 | 208 |
| 2 | 222 |
| 3 | 226 |
| 4 | 230 |
| 5 | 206 |
| 6 | 221 |
| 7 | 219 |
| 8 | 175 |
| 9 | 0 |
| 10 | 4 |
| 11 | 21 |
| 12 | 18 |
| 13 | 0 |
| 14 | 20 |
Game shows
- Big Ticket (28 March 1998 – 11 July 1998)
- We've Got Your Number (27 February 1999 – 15 May 1999)
- Winning Lines (12 June 1999 – 16 October 2004)
- Red Alert (13 November 1999 – 8 April 2000)
- On the Spot (29 July 2000 – 2 September 2000)
- Jet Set (13 January 2001 – 8 August 2007)
- In It to Win It (18 May 2002 – present)
- Wright Around the World (25 October 2003 – 8 January 2005)
- Come and Have a Go If You Think You're Smart Enough (3 April 2004 – 25 June 2005)
- Millionaire Manor (3 December 2005 – 4 March 2006)
- 1 vs. 100 (30 September 2006 – 23 May 2009)
- The People's Quiz (24 March 2007 – 23 June 2007)
- Who Dares Wins (17 November 2007 – present)
- This Time Tomorrow (5 July 2008 – 23 August 2008)
- Guesstimation (11 July 2009 – 29 August 2009)
- Secret Fortune (12 February 2011 – 29 December 2012)
- Break the Safe (27 July 2013 – present)
See also
- List of lotteries
- Millennium Commission
- Big Lottery Fund
- Heritage Lottery Fund
- National Health Service Lottery
- National Lottery (Ireland)
References
- ^ Press Association (15 July 2011). "EuroMillions £161m win claimed by Scottish couple | UK news | guardian.co.uk". Guardian.
- ^ Wilson, Jamie (30 January 1999). "New lottery fund 'not a stealth tax'". London: Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
- ^ The overwhelming case for paying stealth taxes Samuel Brittan, The Financial Times 25 October 1999 as the Jamie Wilson The Guardian 30 January 1999
- ^ "Camelot Group". Camelotfoundation.org.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
- ^ "John Major". www.number10.gov.uk. HM Government. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
John Major also established the National Lottery as a personal initiative which has provided billions of pounds for good causes.
- ^ 1994: Camelot wins UK lottery race BBC On This Day
- ^ UK National Lottery #1
- ^ National Lottery points to Landor | News | Design Week
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "National Lottery Commission | Home " Regulating the Lottery " How we regulate " Safeguarding the integrity of Lottery games". Natlotcomm.gov.uk.[dead link]
- ^ UK News: UK news, latest news UK - WalesOnline
- ^ The National Lottery FAQ
- ^ Daily Mail online: Jackpot for lottery bosses as £5m is set aside for THEIR bonus pot after cost of ticket doubles, 6 June 2013
- ^ New UK Lotto | Lotto Results, Winning Numbers, News & More
- ^ 2011 Saturday Lottery Ticket Sales Figures
- ^ 2011 Wednesday Lottery Ticket Sales Figures
- ^ New Lotto to Launch with Two Unmissable Events
- ^ a b Lotto | What is new Lotto | The National Lottery
- ^ Lottery ticket price doubles to £2 in 'tax on the poor' | Mail Online
- ^ a b Lotto prize breakdown | Check results | The National Lottery
- ^ Thunderball prize calculation| Help | The National Lottery
- ^ a b "Scratchcards | Help". The National Lottery.
- ^ EuroMillions draw history | Check results | The National Lottery
- ^ Millionaire Raffle | Help | The National Lottery
- ^ Winners Map | Check results | The National Lottery
- ^ Lotto prize breakdown | Check results | The National Lottery
- ^ Glory Ball - UKGameshows
- ^ Daily Play Lottery Comes to an End
- ^ "Playing Lotto Plus 5". lottery.co.uk. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
- ^ "Sky Active service information". The National Lottery. 26 September 2009.
- ^ "New Olympic scratch card on sale". Manchester Evening News. 28 July 2005. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- ^ Video of the Show
- ^ "Lottery show delayed by protest". BBC News. London. 20 July 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
- ^ Youtube Video of The Protest
- ^ National Lottery Distribution Fund Account 2010–11 (Report). House of Commons. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
- ^ a b "What is the Heritage Lottery Fund?". hlf.org.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
- ^ BBC News - EuroMillions lottery jackpot of £64m goes unclaimed
- ^ Where The Money Goes | Good Causes and winners | The National Lottery
- ^ Text of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 (c. 39) as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
- ^ Text of the National Lottery Act 1998 (c. 22) as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
- ^ Text of the National Lottery Act 2006 (c. 23) as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
- ^ World Lottery Association United Kingdom
- ^ "Draw Machine Frequencies". 20 February 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
- ^ "Ball Set Frequencies". 20 February 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
External links
- National Lottery website
- National Lottery Commission
- The lottery's winners and losers — a BBC news article about the National Lottery's first ten years
- The National Lottery – the first 15 years[dead link] (PDF; 459 KB; 64p), House of Commons Library, Research Paper (ISSN 1368-8456), 09/93, 14 December 2009
- "Ten years of the Lottery"[dead link], New Statesman special supplement, 8 November 2004
- The Lottery — it shouldn't be you — The Times, 27 January 2006 — an article critical of the Lottery
- National lottery simulator
- Thunderball Results