subject: A Look Into The National Lottery And Why The Uk Love It [print this page] The National Lottery is the biggest lottery within the United Kingdom and is one of the most popular forms of gambling that is currently available. Part of the Camelot Group, the lottery was granted a license to operate in 1994, 2001 and 2007. Here in this article we shall look at some of the history surrounding the lottery and look to why it is so successful today.
The first ever draw called 'The National Lottery Live: The First Draw' took place on Saturday 19th of November 1994. Broadcast on television live the programme received lots of praise from the media but also caused controversy that continues to follow it to this day. Some people claim that the lottery has made gambling far too accessible within the UK and others consider it a 'stealth tax' that affects the poorer members of UK society.
Today the lottery is shown about twice a week with a draw on Wednesday evening and on a Saturday evening where it is combined into a game-show style set up. An impressive twenty one billion of the money that the Lottery has raised has been donated to good causes and three billion of this has been invested into sporting activities for both the young and old within the UK.
Within Cornwall the Eden Project was set up and funded using fifty nine million from the National Lottery and that in turn has created five hundred million pounds for the tourist industry within Cornwall. Not only that but science and environmentally based centres all across the UK have benefited with large financial donations from the Lottery, for both creation and maintenance. Overall the UK lottery gives the largest amount of lottery revenue back to society than any other lottery company in the world.
Camelot launched Euro Millions on the 7th of February 2004, with the first ever draw occurring on Friday the 13th of February 2004. The draw took place in Paris and only three countries actually took part, including the UK, France and Spain. Today it has grown considerably to include Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Portugal. The draw still occurs in Paris and in the UK costs one pound fifty to enter. The chances of winning the Euro Millions stand at 1 in 76,275,360.
Recently in the UK in Liverpool an eight-strong lottery syndicate of IT workers won 45.5 million between them on the Euro Millions, giving them a cool 5.5 million each. Reminding people that although the chances are small, they are still there and it could, technically be you.
