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About the UK National Lottery
The National Lottery was established by an Act of Parliament 21 October 1993 and on 25 May 1994, out of eight bids, The Director General of OFLOT announced Camelot Group plc as the chosen operator.
On 14 November 1994, National Lottery on-line tickets went on sale in 10,000 retail outlets - the world's biggest on-line lottery launch and the first National Lottery draw took place on 19 November 1994 in front of 22 million BBC viewers.
A new game called National Lottery Instants was launched on 21 March 1995and immediately became the UK's largest impulse brand.
On 26 September 1995 the National Lottery announced it had raised £1 billion for Good Causes. and on 6 January 1996 the UK Lotto saw the first double rollover with a £42 million jackpot. Total rollover sales reached £127.8 million.
On 17 March 1996 the National Lottery announced the launch of Lucky Dip feature which randomly generated selection of numbers for the on-line game.
5 February 1997 the first mid-week draw took place and sales reached £33 million.
On 1 June 1997 Camelot raised its Good Causes target from £9 billion to £10 billion by September 2001, due to the huge success of The National Lottery and on 4 February 1998 a landmark figure of 500 millionaires had been created.
On 11th. April 1998, £5 billion had been raised for the Good Causes which increased to £6 billion on 19 November 1998
On 7 June 1999 Camelot launched The National Lottery Thunderball game and on 12 July 1999 the £7 billion raised for the Good Causes had been reached.
On 1 November 1999 the Big Draw 2000, a special Millennium Draw, is launched and the draw took place on 31 December 1999.
On 10 June 2000 the UK National Lotto had created 1,000 Millionaires and on 5 October 2000 Camelot raised its Good Causes target from £10 billion to £10.5 billion by the end of the first licence in September 2001.
On 13 November 2000 a twice-weekly, Jackpot only game called Lottery Extra was launched and on 13 November 2000, Big Draw 2001, a special New Year's Eve draw, launched whilst on 15 November 2000 the first Lottery Extra draw took place with a £1 million Jackpot.
On 19 December 2000 the National Lottery Commission announced that Camelot had been chosen as the preferred bidder for the second seven-year National Lottery licence, which began on January 27 2002.
On 31 December 2000, Big Draw 2001, a special New Year's Eve draw, took place and on 11 September 2001 Camelot reaches £10.5 billion landmark for Good Causes.
31 September 2001 saw the end of the first licence period and 1 October 2001 saw the start of the Interim licence period.
On 5 November 2001 tickets went on sale for Christmas Millionaire Maker, the special Christmas Eve draw and the draw took place on 24 December 2001.
On 27 January 2002 the second National Lottery licence begins and on 29 April 2002 Camelot announces plans to re-launch the Lottery including changing the names of the Saturday and Wednesday games to Lotto and Lotto Extra.
On 18 May 2002 we saw the first Lotto draw and on 10 July 2002 the launch of Lotto HotPicks
17 October 2002 Launch of mid-week Thunderball (first draw 23 October)
Camelot is the operator of the UK National Lottery. It employs 950 staff who work from a head office in Watford, Hertfordshire and four regional centres across the UK. The objective of all staff is to maximise revenue for Good Causes and the Government through lottery games in the most efficient and socially responsible way. This involves creating, marketing and promoting new games, running and developing the lottery infrastructure, providing services for players and winners and working in partnership with retailers.
Camelot is a private company, wholly owned by five shareholders; Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Royal Mail Enterprises, De La Rue Holdings plc, Fujitsu Services Ltd and Thales Electronics who each share a 20% stake in the company. Its full board comprises of a non-executive chairman, four independent non-executive directors, three executive directors and non-executive representatives from each of its shareholder companies.
As operator of The National Lottery, Camelot's role is critical to the lottery's success - but it is only one role in the asymmetrical partnership of organisations responsible for running the different functions of The National Lottery as follows:
* The Government, empowered by the National Lottery Act 1993, through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport appoints and directs:
* The National Lottery Commission, after a competition against an Invitation to Tender awards the licence to run The National Lottery and regulates:
* Camelot, the lottery operator, raises the money for:
* Six Good Causes approved by Parliament which select and allocate funds to 16 distribution bodies. Funding to one of the 16 distribution bodies, the Millennium Commission, ceased in August 2001. These in turn decide which beneficiaries should receive funding.