Lottery
United Kingdom

The principal lottery in the United Kingdom is the National Lottery, a state-franchised lottery sanctioned by the Gambling Commission (formerly the National Lottery Commission), and established in 1994. It is operated by Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, who took over from the original operator Camelot Group in 2024. 28% of National Lottery revenue, along with all unclaimed prizes, are distributed as grants to charitable causes. 12% of the revenue from the National Lottery is expected to go to the government, 5% goes to lottery retailers, 5% is retained by the operator for operating costs, and 50% remains for the total prize fund of which 5% is diverted to a Super Draw fund, leaving 45% for normal prizes.

Northern & Shell also operates a commercial lottery known as The Health Lottery, which distributes its revenue to support health-related charities and causes. To comply with the Gambling Act, which forbids other parties from operating a national lottery, The Health Lottery operates as an umbrella corporation representing a group of 51 society lotteries across the United Kingdom with a common drawing and prize pool. Each drawing is held on behalf of one or more of the society lotteries, whose revenues go to support health-related causes in their respective area. The Health Lottery received criticism on launch for only pledging to donate 20.3% of ticket costs to charity, compared to the National Lottery's 28%, and that the lottery's structure was designed to contravene British law regarding lotteries. In the UK, winning the lottery is correlated to expressing more preference for the Conservative Party. Winning larger prizes results in a larger shift in favor of the Conservative Party.

People's Postcode Lottery is a subscription lottery in the UK. The format was introduced by Dutch company Novamedia BV: players pay at minimum £10 monthly to play, and winning postcodes are announced daily. In accordance with restrictions under the Gambling Act 2005, the maximum amount which can be won by a single ticket is £500,000, or 10% of the total draw proceeds. A minimum of 33% of the ticket price from players' subscriptions supports various trusts, which in turn fund local and international charities and community projects. Some £850 million have been donated. People's Postcode Lottery has a number of celebrity ambassadors, including David Attenborough, Judi Dench, Shobna Gulati, Tim Healy, Stephen Jardine, Ellen MacArthur, Aggie MacKenzie, Carey Mulligan, John Stapleton and Emma Thompson. The lottery was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, The Welsh Valley That Won the Lottery, about the residents of Rhymney who won in May 2022.
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