Commons Briefing paper by John Woodhouse. It was first published on Thursday, 28 November 2019. It was last updated on Thursday, 8 February 2024.
The National Lottery
The first National Lottery draw took place on 19 November 1994. Since then, it has raised over £48 billion for good causes and supported 685,000 projects. Around 1% of total revenue is retained in profit, with 95% going to winners and society. Expenditure of total revenue on operating costs is about 4%, making it “one of the most cost-efficient major lotteries in Europe”. For the year ending 31 March 2023, total ticket sales were £8,190.3 million. This resulted in:
- £1,877.3 million generated for National Lottery projects.
- £4,694 million awarded to players in prizes.
- £982.8 million going to the Government in Lottery Duty.
- £254.7 million earned by retailers in commission.
On 1 February 2024, Allwyn became the National Lottery operator, taking over from Camelot.
This Briefing gives an overview of how the Lottery operates and is regulated.
Secondary information
- Type
- Research briefing
- Reference
- CBP-8744
- Subjects
- Consumers Age Finance Licensing Distribution Grants Gambling Commission Protection National Lottery Distribution Fund National Lottery Camelot Group Department for Culture, Media and Sport Prizes Allwyn Entertainment
- Published by
- Home Affairs Section
- House of Commons Library
- Link
- View this Research briefing on researchbriefings.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-08-18 09:00:28 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1168115
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1168115
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1168115
- Internal location
- http://researchbriefingsintranet.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8744