Good causes receive record £1.8bn from National Lottery ticket sales
Melanie May | 24 May 2023 | News
The 2022/23 financial year saw the National Lottery give £1.807 billion to good causes from ticket sales – a record amount, Camelot has announced.
This was £6.2 million more than in the previous year, and came as the National Lottery annual sales grew to the second highest in its history to reach £8.19bn. This was an increase of £99.6mn.
Fewer unclaimed prizes were handed over to good causes in 2022/23 but including these, a total of £1,877.3bn (an average of £36mn a week according to Camelot) was generated for good causes over the year. This takes the total raised for National Lottery projects since 1994 to more than £47bn, with more than 670,000 individual grants made across the UK.
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Overall, £3.1bn was generated for society through good causes, lottery duty – which reached almost £1 billion in 2022/23 – and retailer commission.
Camelot Co-CEOs, Clare Swindell and Neil Brocklehurst, said:
“We’re delighted to have grown National Lottery sales year-on-year to their second highest on record, creating almost 400 millionaires in the process. And with £36 million being raised each week for Good Cause projects around the UK and returns from ticket sales rising to their best-ever level, it’s clear that The National Lottery is delivering for players and society in what are very challenging times.
“We have more exciting plans lined up for the year ahead to ensure that The National Lottery remains front of mind and brings people together at key national moments. And, we also remain committed to delivering the National Lottery in a safe and socially-responsible way. All while we continue to support Allwyn UK on its transition plans to the fourth licence, from 1 February 2024.”
Allwyn takes over from Camelot in February 2024, when the current licence expires. It said last year that it expects the money allocated to good causes to more than double under its stewardship.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.