The National Lottery: an overview

The National Lottery etc Act 1993 set up the National Lottery.

The first draw took place on 19 November 1994. Since then, the National Lottery has raised over £53 billion for more than 680,000 projects.

In 2025, £1.7 billion was given to good causes from ticket sales. There are four good causes:

• arts
• sport
• national heritage
• charitable activities, health, education, and the environment

Across the National Lottery’s fourth licence, the average allocation of each £1 spent is expected to be as follows: 56p on prizes to players, 23p on good causes, 12p on Lottery Duty to the Treasury, 3p on retailer commission, 5p on operating costs, and 1p on operator profit.

The minimum age for playing National Lottery games is 18. There are two types of game:

• draw-based games – such as Lotto and EuroMillions
• instant win games – where a prize can be won immediately (scratch cards and online instant win games)

There are four parties involved in running the National Lottery:

• the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Allwyn, the licence holder for operating the Lottery
• the Gambling Commission, the regulator for gambling and lotteries
• the twelve distributing bodies of Lottery money

A DCMS consultation on the distribution of Lottery money for good causes closed on 23 September 2026. This noted that the current system for distributing funding launched in 1994. It was therefore “right” to “take action to ensure it still reflects our priorities as a society, meets the needs of communities across the UK, and resonates with players.”