UK Lottery

What is the UK Lottery?

The UK Lottery, or otherwise known as ‘The National Lottery’, is a state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom. The lottery is operated by Camelot Group. The lottery’s license was received in the year 1994. The game is regulated by the National Lottery Commission. The amazing thing about this game that makes it so popular is that the jackpots are paid out as a lump sum and are tax-free.

How did it originate?

In 1993, the National Lottery was franchised to Camelot, a private operator. The Camelot Group was then awarded its franchise in 1994. The first National Lottery draw that took place was on the 19th of November, 1994. The television programme at the time had Noel Edmonds as its presenter. The first ever winning numbers were 30-3-5-44-14-22 with the bonus number 10.

Ever since then, the National lottery has undergone massive changes and a major rebranding programme in late 2002 in order to overcome declining sales.

How big is it today?

There have been many recent upgrades and changes to the game such as the addition of a Wednesday draw. That change was made in February 1997. The Lotto Raffle was also introduced in October 2013. Then in October 2015, ten extra balls were added the game’s matrix, as well as the Millionaire Maker Raffle. The Millionaire Maker Raffle guarantees £1 million for the winner.

Who can play the UK Lottery?

Anyone can play the UK Lottery these days. If you don’t live in the UK, fear not. You can play using a lottery ticket concierge service. You can never lose your ticket, your personal information is kept safe, and you get your results and how many winnings you have emailed directly to you.

When can I play the UK Lottery?

It’s quite easy and fun to play the UK Lottery. Players must pick six numbers between 1 and 59. If all six numbers match the main balls drawn, that means you have just won the jackpot! It’s not as easy as it sounds, though, but no fear! You still have the opportunity to win smaller tier prizes which are easier for you to get your hands on.

UK Lottery Prize Structure

Like many other popular lottery games, the UK Lottery has many prize tiers for winners. Even if you don’t win the jackpot, you still stand a chance of walking away with a smaller tier prize that is still substantial. The prize pools are 42.47% of the total profit made from tickets sold for that draw.

Here they are:

Match 6 main numbers – win the jackpot

Match 5 main numbers and a bonus ball – win 1.9% of the prize pool

Match 5 main numbers – win 2.0% of the prize pool

Match 4 main numbers – win 12.9% of the prize pool

Match 3 main numbers – win an estimated £25

Match 2 main numbers – win a Free Lotto Lucky Dip ticket

The Biggest Wins

The UK Lottery has produced a vast amount of winners over the years as well as producing many millionaires. Here are the biggest winners over the past 10 years:

  1. Jackie King won £14 million in 1998
  2. Emma Wildin won £1 million with the Millionaire Maker scratch card in 2013
  3. Mark Brudenell won £916,915 in 1997
  4. Karen Child won over £8 million in 2007
  5. Malcolm Wilkins won a £10 million jackpot in 2002
  6. Deana Sampson won over £5 million in 1996
  7. Niki Otterburn won £2,216,029 in 2001
  8. Eloise Heard won over £1 million in 2011
  9. Sarah Cockings won a jackpot of £3 million in 2005
  10. Alex Dyer won £6 million in 2003

Distribution of Revenue

So far the National Lottery has raised nearly £20 billion for ‘good causes’. This is a programme that gives money in the form of grants to the disadvantaged in the community. 28% of lottery revenue goes towards this fund along with unclaimed prizes. 12% goes to the state. The jackpot prize that gets given to a winner should they match all the winning numbers, is 50% of the prize fund. 10% of the remaining profit goes towards operating costs for lottery organisers.

40% is awarded to the betterment of the country for better healthcare, charitable causes, sports, arts, and heritage.

The National Lottery has set up something called the “Heritage Lottery Fund” set up by government in 1994 to help raise money for local and national heritage. Money generated from the grants has helped over 26,000 projects.

How to play UK Lottery

It’s quite easy to play the UK Lottery and once you get the hang of it, you’ll have so much fun entering each draw. To play the game, you must choose six main numbers. The numbers chosen must be between the ranges of 1 and 59. If all your 6 chosen numbers match the balls drawn on the night, then you have just won yourself the jackpot!

You can get your tickets over the counter if you live in the UK, if not, you can purchase them online from a reputable lottery ticket concierge service.

Keep an eye out for UK Lottery scams

For online lottery enthusiasts, having access to all the biggest lotteries in the world is an amazing opportunity. However, because everything is moving online in this day and age, you also have to be vigilant and wary about giving your personal information.

Lottery fraudsters are everywhere, and you must be able to recognise immediately when they are trying to con you out of your hard-earned money.

The most obvious form of lottery scams come in the form of emails. You need to know how to recognize a suspicious email. The emails tell you that you have won the lottery. If you cannot remember playing the game they are mentioning, or if they tell you that your email address was chosen, then it is a scam. The grammar and spelling is often very poor too, and that is another warning sign.

When people receive emails promising them the world, but then ask for money first, that’s a loud siren! No legitimate lottery would ever email you to tell you that you have won a huge prize.

Pensioners are usually the ones targeted as they often cannot remember if they entered any games. They are also ignorant as to how claiming lottery prizes works, so they will do anything the fraudster tells them in order to receive their winnings without thinking twice.

All of these scams are trying to do the same thing: make you reveal your personal information so that they can hack your account and get money from you. You must not fall for it. They also send you fake checks and ask you to send them money to pay for the admin fees. Once you have paid the “admin fee” it is already too late because the check is counterfeit.

It’s important to stay safe out there, so here are some ways you can avoid being taken advantage of:

  1. If you get an email from an unknown account saying you have won the lottery for a game you have never entered, delete it immediately. You can even go further and block the email address to ensure you don’t receive any more from them.
  2. If the number calling you has no identifiable caller ID, then be on your guard. Fraudsters are so smart as to even change the area code they are calling from so it looks like a local call from your country or city.
  3. If the email has awful spelling and grammar, then be sure that it is a scam. For something as life-changing as winning the lottery, when being notified, it is highly unlikely that the organisation would have such atrocious English.
  4. If the caller tells you to keep your win confidential “for the sake of your own security”, really what they mean is “don’t tell anyone, not even the police, because then we will get caught.”
  5. Please remember that no lottery in the world asks you for a single cent if you have legitimately won a prize. There are no such things as “release admin costs”.
  6. The scammers are bold and confident. They can namedrop all day long but until you contact the legitimate lottery yourself, you must never believe them.
  7. Never ever give them your banking details.
  8. They will even ask you to call a certain number to “verify your win and identity”. Never do this because they make you call a premium number which will rack up an astronomical bill.
  9. As soon as you feel doubtful or suspicious, hang up the phone!

Always have your wits about you, and don’t fall for any of these lottery tricks online. By playing on a reputable online lottery ticket service, you are safe, and will always be notified correctly about any wins you have in the future.

Best of luck with your online lottery games!