National Lottery

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The National Lottery (now officially called Lotto, like most of its European equivalents) is the United Kingdom's largest lottery. It is operated by Camelot Group, plc, who were awarded the franchise in 1993 and had it renewed in 2002. The lottery is regulated by The National Lottery Commission. It is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the UK.

All prizes are paid as a lump sum and are tax-free.

Contents

Games

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. If you match all six balls you win 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 at the same time as playing the main Lotto draw have the chance to enter the Lotto Extra draw with the same six numbers or a 'Lucky Dip' random selection. Six numbers are drawn from a range of 1–49. If you match all six balls you win the jackpot; the chance of doing so is 1 in 13,983,816. There are no other prizes. If no one matches all six numbers the jackpot rolls over until it is won or reaches £50 million, when if no one matches all six then the prize will roll down to players matching five, if none then four, if none then three, etc. The price for a ticket is £1.

The draw is conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays. All Saturday draws are shown live on BBC 1 in the UK, immediately after the main Lotto draw, whereas due to lack of time on Wednesday draws, just the pre-selected winning numbers are 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.

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 £5000 1: 299,661
5 + Thunderball £250,000 1: 3,895,584

Scratchcards

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 a substance that cannot be seen through, 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

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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.

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.

Good Causes

The National Lottery has so far raised several billions of pounds 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.

It should be noted that occasionally the money funds things the public strongly dislikes, like the film Sex Lives of the Potato Men.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/National_Lottery.html"


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