The National Lottery: how does it work?

The National Lottery began in November 1994. Since then, it has raised over £42 billion for good causes and backed over 565,000 projects.

There are four parties that contribute to running the Lottery:

• the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport;
• Camelot Group plc, the current operator;
• the Gambling Commission;
• the individual distributing bodies of Lottery money.

The minimum age for playing all National Lottery games is to be raised to 18. The relevant regulations will come into force on 1 October 2021 to give retailers and Camelot time to prepare. However, the Government hopes that online sales to 16 and 17-year-olds will stop from April 2021. The change follows a DCMS consultation in 2019.

The third licence to run the Lottery came into force in February 2009 and expires in 2023. In August 2020, the Gambling Commission launched the fourth licensing competition. The award of the next licence will be announced in October 2021, with a transition period from then until July 2023. The fourth licence will begin in August 2023. 

This Paper gives a brief overview of how the Lottery works.