On November 19, 1994, the first ever UK National Lottery draw was broadcast live on a BBC One show hosted by Noel Edmonds.
The National Lottery had been set up the previous year by John Major’s government and franchised to the operator Camelot, who beat off competition from seven other consortia to win the bid.
Anyone over the age of 16 was able to buy a £1 ticket and select six numbers between 1 and 49. If their six selections matched the six numbered balls picked randomly by the lottery machine, they would win at least a share of the jackpot. If they matched just three numbers, they would win a fixed £10.
After much hype and an hour-long launch show watched by some 25 million people and featuring gameshow elements, celebrity star turns and the inimitable predictions of Mystic Meg, there was mild disappointment when the draw failed to make someone a millionaire; the jackpot of around £5.9 million was shared by seven winners, with each one winning a shade under £840,000.
[February 15, 1971: All change as Britain switches to decimal currency]
In spite of this, the National Lottery was a success in its first year, with £267 million going to the allocated ‘good causes’ in the arts, heritage, sport and for the impending Millennium celebrations. Another £154 million was donated to charity.
- Inspired by the lottery’s ‘It Could Be You’ slogan, Brits bought 48,965,792 tickets for the first draw. Of these, 1,152,611 were winners, with the lucky punters sharing a prize fund of just over £22 million between them.
- The first winning numbers, in the order in which they were drawn, were 30, 3, 5, 44, 14 and 22. The bonus ball was 10.
- The jackpot fund was initially estimated at £6.9 million, but this was revised downwards to £5.9m because of the enormous number of players – more than one million – who matched three numbers to win £10 each.
- There was a remarkable gulf in the prize won for matching five numbers (£528), and for what was received by those matching five plus the bonus ball (£46,349).
- On May 18, 1995, £620,966 of unclaimed prize money from the first draw was added to the National Lottery Distribution Fund.
- A second draw, on Wednesdays, was added in 1997, but in the face of falling ticket sales, the National Lottery was rebranded as ‘Lotto’ in 2002.
- After 19 years at £1, the price of a lottery ticket doubled to £2 in October 2013; the minimum prize was also increased from £10 to £25.
- In October 2015, 10 more balls were added to the draw. This reduced the chances of a jackpot win, although matching two numbers now wins a free entry to a future draw.
- The largest-ever National Lottery jackpot was £42,008,610 in January 1996; three anonymous winners each won £14,002,870.
- The largest single jackpot win was the £22,590,829 collected by Sussex double-glazing salesmen Paul Maddison and Mark Gardiner in June 1995.
- In January 1995, a bumper rollover jackpot of £16 million was shared between 133 winners, who won a comparatively underwhelming £122,500 each.