£20 bn
A total of £20 billion raised for Good Causes.
2,000
More than 2,000 millionaires created since the lottery was launched.
35%
Sales from interactive channels up by over £35%.
80%
A rise of 80% in sales through National Lottery Fast Pay.
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Maximising returns
Our overall goal is to raise as much as possible for Good Causes in a socially responsible way. Sales in 2006/07 saw significant growth in Scratchcards and Instant Win Games and a strong contribution from newer channels such as interactive platforms and National Lottery Fast Pay. Since The National Lottery began, it has raised a total of £20 billion for Good Causes.
We believe the ideal way to responsibly deliver returns to Good Causes is to have as many players as possible spending small amounts of money.
Around 70% of adults in the UK regularly play National Lottery games. In 2006/07 33 million players spent an average of £2.79 a week on lottery tickets and Scratchcards.
Our total sales for the year were £4,911 million, a modest fall of 2% on the exceptional previous year, but ahead of 2004/05 and the preceding three years. Although we were able to report growth in three quarters, the fourth quarter dipped slightly compared to the same period in 2005/06 when a record £125 million Jackpot in the EuroMillions roll series generated sales of nearly £200 million. Including the small fall in headline National Lottery ticket sales, over the last four years we have seen a 7.4% increase in sales.
We are now ranked as the fourth largest lottery in the world in terms of sales, but that is set against our continuing low per capita spend. In 2006 we were ranked 47th in the world on per capita sales against total sales.
The year saw strong growth in Scratchcards and Instant Win Games, with a range of new games helping sales to rise by 7.3%.
Sales through new channels grew significantly, with a 35% rise in interactive channels to £290.8 million, making us the largest online lottery in the world in terms of sales. Interactive channels include mobile phones, digital TV and the internet, and the number of registered players for the services grew to 2.7 million.
Also showing a significant increasing this year was National Lottery Fast Pay, which allows players to store regular numbers on a credit-card sized card which can be used to buy tickets for draw-based lottery games at any lottery terminal and was developed in partnership with Tesco. Sales through National Lottery Fast Pay grew by over 80% to £95.3 million.
Another area of growth was subscriptions, up 37.9% on the previous year.
We reached two landmarks this year. Since we started selling our first lottery tickets in 1994, we have raised £20 billion for Good Causes and created more than 2,000 millionaires. Read more about Good Causes.
Last year, we made a commitment to continue our work to enable people with disabilities to access our website and to increase our system capacity. We met that aim, making The National Lottery website easier to use and more accessible. Find out more at www.national-lottery.co.uk.
The challenge of raising money responsibly is to attract new players rather than encouraging existing players to play significantly more. Read more about the measures we take to protect players, including strategies to make sure we design and market our products responsibly, in a way that limits their attraction to underage and other vulnerable people.