Lottery chalks up record revenues

The UK’s National Lottery has hit its highest-ever revenue figures.

The National Lottery, by far the region’s biggest gamble, with around £4bn of the GGR of £24.3bn for the half-year to September 2019, will tomorrow announce record sales figures.

In its 25th anniversary year, the National Lottery is expected to report a full-year revenue of around £7.2bn. Of this sum, £1.6bn went to National Lottery projects, £4.1bn was paid in prizes, £864.8m went to the government in taxes and £303.9 went in commissions to retailers.

Since its inception, the lottery has contributed £41bn to community projects, the arts, heritage and sports. It is credited with helping the British team win 65 medals at the London Olympics and 67 at the Rio Olympics.

Yet the lottery is widely criticised by other UK gambling sectors for permitting sales to 16-year-olds while adult gaming centres, for example, have a strict 18s-plus entry code.