The UK National Lottery injected £1.83 billion into the National Lottery Distribution Fund for good causes during the 2020/21 financial year, according to the UK Gambling Commission. The lottery operator, Camelot, which uses different reporting methods, puts the figure at £1.88 billion.
Record National Lottery sales surpass £8 billion.
Camelot’s data also shows record-breaking sales figures that exceeded £8 billion. This marks an increase of £468.8 million from the previous year.
“The National Lottery has delivered for the UK again this year, with the highest-ever returns for Good Causes from sales alone. A remarkable £1.2 billion has been distributed to help the country respond to the impact of coronavirus. Without this money, many organizations would have ceased to function,” said Camelot Chairman Sir Hugh Robertson.
“This has been achieved by making the right strategic calls as a business alongside the support of players and the wider National Lottery family. I would like to thank the government, the National Lottery Distributors, our retail partners, and, most importantly, National Lottery players – without whom this remarkable success story would not have been possible,” Robertson added.
Ticket sales increased by more than 5%.
Although there was an increase in both ticket sales and money to good causes, the latter grew at a slightly slower rate. Ticket sales increased by more than 5%, while funds to good causes rose by nearly 2%. That’s lower than the previous year when ticket sales increased by over 9% and funds for the good causes grew by 12%.
Digital sales reached a record high with more than £3.5 billion.
Camelot announced that sales in all six of its draw-based games increased by £153.6 million. That’s a spike of around 42.8% from the previous year.
Due to pandemic lockdowns, people turned to betting sites as they couldn’t visit brick-and-mortar casinos. This led to a rise in digital sales, including mobile sales that grew by £876.4 million, reaching a record £2.4 billion. The majority of these sales came through the National Lottery’s apps.
The announcement comes at the same time operators are bidding for the fourth National Lottery licence tender. Camelot has had a licence to operate the National Lottery since 1994, which is due to expire at the beginning of 2023.
