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The UK National Lottery: A national asset

The National Lottery was launched in 1994 to raise funds to support good causes across the UK through its ticket sales and offer life changing prizes to players. It is operated under licence.

More than 20 million people watched the National Lottery launch its first live draw on prime-time television in 1994. It fast became part of the fabric of our society. The weekly draw became a prominent Saturday night TV entertainment feature for many people and instant win games – such as scratchcards – were introduced with the opportunity for players to win smaller prizes any day of the week. Everyone knew someone who played, whether as an individual player or in syndicate with colleagues, family or friends.

Currently the National Lottery can be played either in store or online. There are approximately 45,000 retailers located throughout the UK ranging from local independent retailers to large supermarket chains.

A 25 year journey supporting good causes

The National Lottery celebrates 25 years in 2019. In its lifetime it has awarded over £67 billion in prizes and created more than 5,000 millionaires. In addition, over £38 billion has been raised to support good causes with more than 535,000 individual grants made across the UK. This has funded flagship multi-million pound projects as well as many local community projects. One of its most significant contributions was £2.2billion towards the cost of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

  1. 25 May 1994

    First UK National Lottery licence awarded

  2. 14 November 1994

    20 million switched on to watch Noel Edmonds launch the first live draw on BBC One

  3. 21 March 1995

    Launch scratchcards

  4. 5 February 1997

    Launch of mid-week draw

  5. 19 December 2000

    Second UK National Lottery licence awarded

  6. 24 February 2003

    Launch of interactive Instant Win Games

  7. 13 February 2004

    Launch of Euromillions

  8. 7 August 2007

    Third UK National Lottery licence awarded

  9. 1 October 2013

    New Lotto launched with more prizes and raffles

  10. 19 November 2019

    UK National Lottery celebrates 25 years

  11. 2023

    Third UK National Lottery licence expires

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Last updated: 19 July 2023

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