History of the National Lottery
The largest lottery in the United Kingdom and one of the most popular forms of gambling available in the UK, the National Lottery is part of the Camelot Group, who was granted the licence to operate and maintain the National Lottery in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The National Lottery Commission regulates The National Lottery, a non-departmental public body which reports to the National Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Before this, until the 1st of April 1999, the Office of the National Lottery (OFLOT) was the regulator. In 2002, to try to combat falling sales and popularity of the lottery, a large-scale re branding programme was initiated by Camelot, resulting in the main lottery game being renamed to Lotto. Despite this, though, the games are still known and referred as The National Lottery among the public and on the official Lotto website.
At the launch of the National Lottery in 1994, by the then Conservative government, it was with a storm of praise, referred to as "the most successful innovation of any government for years." But, even before the launch of the National Lottery there was controversy that has continued to this day. Some claim that is has blighted the UK by making gambling more accessible, while other call it a "stealth tax", especially on some of the poorer members of UK society.
The National Lottery Draw
Like most of the National Lottery draws, this is broadcasted on television live. The first draw, called "The National Lottery Live: The First Draw" took place on Saturday 19th of November 2004 at 19:00. Currently the draws are shown on both Wednesday evening in a five-minute slot for the Wednesday draw, and Saturday evening in-between a large game-show style set-up for the Saturday draw.
EuroMillions
The pan-European lottery, EuroMillions, was launched by Camelot on Saturday the 7th of February 2004, with the first draw taking place on Friday 13th of February 2004 in Paris. Beginning with only three countries taking part - the UK, Spain and France, it has now grown to include Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Portugal.
The draws are still held in Paris today and are shown on the television channel BBC One in the UK, and the cost of entering the EuroMillions draw to the UK public set at £1.50 per board. The odds of winning the huge EuroMillions jackpot is around 1 in 76,275,360.
The National Lottery Xtra
The new National Lottery Xtra channel began its broadcast on the Freeview channel 45 from Match 10th 2008. It runs for an hour each day, and includes promotional content for the lottery, jackpot and big winners' real-life stories, behind the scenes footage of The National Lottery as a show and how it all works, as well as information and details of all the National Lottery Good Causes projects and how the charity money collected by the Lottery is spent.
Sponsored Charities and Events
To date, over £21 billion has been raised by ticket sales on The National Lottery and given to good causes.
Over £3 billion of this has been invested in sport and UK sporting activities for both the young and the old.
In Cornwall, the Eden Project was constructed using £59 million of funding from the National Lottery. The Eden Project has, as a result, created over £500 million for the tourist industry in Cornwall.
Villages and community centres across the UK have also benefited, with over £258 million donated for their upkeep and creation.
Science and environmentally based visitor centres all around the United Kingdom have benefitted, with nearly have a billion pounds of lottery funding.
In the Olympics and Paralympics you will find many athletes that have been sponsored by the Lottery. In total, 287 medals have been won by these sportsmen and women.
And
Children and young people have benefited from projects funded by The National Lottery, with over £10 billion donated.
In total, the UK National Lottery gives the highest amount of Lottery revenue back into society - much more than every other Lottery operator in any country in the world.