History of the UK National Lottery
February 16th, 2010
The key history of The National Lottery, from the UK National Lottery website.
1994
- 25 May 1994 Camelot selected to run the first UK National Lottery
- 14 November 1994 Launch of the first National Lottery game
- 19 November 1994 First Lotto Draw
- 10 December 1994 First Lotto Rollover Draw
1995
- 21 March 1995 Launch of National Lottery Scratchcards
- 28 December 1995 £5 billion draw-based tickets sold
1996
- 6 January 1996 First Lotto Double Rollover
- 25 February 1996 £2 billion paid out in prizes
- 17 March 1996 Launch of Lucky Dip
- 12 October 1996 100th National Lottery Game Draw
1997
- 14 January 1997 £10 billion sales
- 5 February 1997 Launch of the midweek Lotto draw
1998
- April 1998 £5 billion raised for the Good Causes
- 2 July 1998 Amendments to the National Lottery etc. Act
1999
- 1 April 1999 The National Lottery Commission takes over from OFLOT as regulator
- 7 June 1999 Launch of National Lottery Thunderball
- 31 December 1999 Big Draw 2000 creates a record-breaking 18 millionaire tickets in one night
2000
- June 2000 1,000th millionaire created
- 19 December 2000 Camelot is awarded the second seven-year Licence to operate The National Lottery
2001
- May 2001 £10 billion raised for the Good Causes
- June 2001 Launch of Millionaire, the first ever £1 million Scratchcard game
- October 2001 Launch of 100th Scratchcard game, Monopoly
2002
- 27 January 2002 Start of second Licence
- January 2002 Installation of 25,000 new lottery terminals
- March 2002 Installation of major new IT system to run The National Lottery
- 10 July 2002 Launch of Lotto HotPicks
- 21 August 2002 100th Lotto Rollover
- 23 October 2002 First midweek Thunderball draw
2003
- 28 February 2003 Launch of Instant Win Games on the Internet
- 21 May 2003 Creation of 1,500th National Lottery millionaire
- 22 September 2003 Launch of Daily Play
- 18 November 2003 Unveiling of first crossed fingers Blue Plaques on National Lottery-funded projects
- November 2003 £15 billion raised for the Good Causes
- 15 December 2003 Launch of Lotto and Daily Play Online
2004
- 13 February 2004 EuroMillions launched (UK, France and Spain)
- March 2004 First online Lotto jackpot winner (£5.9 million – Mr F from Midlothian, Scotland)
- 6 April 2004 Launch of Lotto on Sky Active
- 29 May 2004 First-ever Lotto Triple Rollover
- 2 July 2004 EuroMillions launches online and on Sky Active
- 14 July 2004 Iris Jeffrey wins £20.1 million on Lotto, becoming the biggest single publicity winner so far
- 8 October 2004 First expanded EuroMillions draw, incorporating six more European countries (Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland)
- 13 October 2004 Launch of Play by Text (Lotto, EuroMillions and Daily Play on mobile phones)
- 25 October 2004 200th National Lottery Scratchcard launched (I’m A Celebrity, Get me Out Of Here! – the first TV-themed licensed game)
- 6 November 2004 The National Lottery celebrates its 10th Birthday – the first-ever National Lottery Awards
- December 2004 Interactive Thunderball launch
2005
- 15 April 2005 One-millionth customer registered to play online
- May 2005 Rollout of National Lottery Fast Pay commences
- 28 July 2005 Launch of Go For Gold – the first designated lottery game to help raise funds for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
- 23 October 2005 Lotto HotPicks ‘Pick 1’ and ‘Pick 5’ games launch
2006
- 3 February 2006 Biggest ever jackpot in European lottery history – £126 million EuroMillions Rollover
- 5 July 2006 Launch of Dream Number – the first designated draw-based game to support London 2012
- 9 December 2006 2,000th millionaire created
2007
- June 2007 Creation of 10,000th Lotto jackpot winner
- March 2007 £20 billion raised for the Good Causes
- 10 August 2007 Angela Kelly becomes the UK’s biggest jackpot winner, scooping £35.4 million on EuroMillions
- 31 August 2007 Camelot is awarded the third Licence to operate The National Lottery, due to commence in February 2009
2008
- May 2008 Launch of Go For Gold, the first London 2012- branded game to offer players the chance to win a £1 million top prize
- July 2008 300,000Pth National Lottery grant awarded
- October 2008 £22 billion raised for the Good Causes
- November The National Lottery celebrates its 14th anniversary
2009
- February 2009 Start of third Licence
