15 Years Of The National Lottery: Facts And Figures

The UK National Lottery will soon be celebrating its 15th birthday. Originally the game that we now know as the Lotto was simply referred to as the National Lottery draw and it wasn’t until 2002 that the name was changed for rebranding purposes.

The first draw was held on Saturday 19th November 1994, and the results for that draw and every draw that has taken place since can be found via the lottery results page at the National-lottery.com website.

The Lotto game has helped to create a huge number of National Lottery winners over the last 15 years; the biggest individual Lotto winner to go public was Iris Jeffrey, who won 20.1 pounds million in July 2004.

By June 2007 an incredible 10,000 people had won a Lotto jackpot, and the number of jackpot winners hasn’t stopped rising.

Many winners have enjoyed the larger prizes offered by rollover jackpots, with the first Lotto rollover in December 1994. Players had to wait until January 1996 for the first double rollover jackpot, and the first triple rollover didn’t occur until May 2004.

Statistics reveal that the number 38 has been drawn more than any other number since the Lotto began, whilst the number 20 has been drawn the least amount of times.

Anyone who visits the statistics page can find out how any of their favourite numbers have fared over the last 15 years thanks to a very easy to read chart that puts all of the data in one place. A table showing how many times the various lottery machines have been used to pick winner numbers is also available for viewing.

The odds of winning a Lotto jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816, but even if a player doesn’t win the top prize they could still be a winner because the odds of a player winning any prize at all are 1 in 54. It is therefore no surprise that around 70% of the UK population play the Lotto and other National Lottery games on a regular basis. What might surprise – and encourage – many is that 1 in 8,642 people who play have won a share of a National Lottery jackpot!

Although it is commonly said that money doesn’t bring happiness, the vast majority of jackpot winners (97%) report that picking all six winning numbers has made them happier. This is probably due to the fact that the instant eradication of money worries allows winners to focus on the good things that life has to offer. And what do people do when they’ve won a jackpot? Well, most winners buy new homes, but usually in the same town that they lived in before the win. 81% of winners also choose to leave their jobs, although many continue to work, preferring to start their own businesses.

When the Lotto was first launched the only way to purchase tickets was by visiting a lottery retail outlet such as an approved convenience store or High Street shop, however, technology has moved on rapidly since 1994 and today players can choose to purchase their Lotto tickets online. One big advantage of buying tickets online is that electronic tickets cannot be lost, so the risk of a player missing out on a prize is dramatically reduced.

Sam Weren, spokesman for National-lottery.com said: “The last 15 years of the Lotto have been hugely entertaining, and we are delighted that the Lotto game continues to create millionaires week after week. Of course, we should remember that the Lotto has also raised a lot of money for Good Causes – more than 23 pounds billion has been raised since 1994, and when you add that to the 32 pounds billion that has been paid out in prize money to winners, it’s clear that lottery games make a big impact on society in the UK.

“We wish Lotto a very happy birthday and we look forward to celebrating the wins of many more Lottery millionaires in the years ahead.”

Tags: Lotto, National Lottery

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 10:10 am and is filed under Life, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.