The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced a slight decrease in National Lottery ticket sales over the past year.
However, excluding the National Lottery and small society lotteries, the commission has noted that lotteries declared their highest reported figures to date across ticket sales, prizes to customers and contributions to good causes.
Publishing its April 2021 to March 2022 industry statistics for the UK gambling market, the UKGC has stated that ticket sales for the National Lottery totalled £8.1bn, 3.5% lower than April 2020 to March 2021’s £8.4bn, but 2.4% higher than April 2019 to March 2020’s £7.9bn.
Of the £8.1bn in ticket sales, the commission says £4.6bn was returned to customers as prizes, 5% lower than April 2020 to March 2021’s £4.9bn, but a 2.4% increase on April 2019 to March 2020’s £4.5bn.
Contributions to good causes from the National Lottery between April 2021 to March 2022 reached £1.72bn, a 0.5% drop on April 2020 to March 2021’s £1.73bn, but a 3.4% uptick on April 2019 to March 2020’s £1.65bn.
Lottery duty for April 2021 to March 2022 came in at £971m (April 2020 to March 2021: £1bn, April 2019 to March 2020: £949m).
Excluding the National Lottery and small society lotteries, ticket sales for lotteries reached their highest reported figures to date. Total sales reached £919.1m, a 5.4% improvement on April 2020 to March 2021’s £872m, and a 10.4% increase on April 2019 to March 2020’s £832m.
Of the £919.1m, £253.3m was returned to customers as prizes, a 7% rise on April 2020 to March 2021’s £237m, and a 15.5% uptick on April 2019 to March 2020’s £219m.
Lotteries contributed £417.1m to good causes between April 2021 to March 2022, a 3.8% increase on April 2020 to March 2021’s £402m, and a 13.4% improvement on April 2019 to March 2020’s £368m.
Earlier this week, Camelot UK Lotteries declared that the National Lottery had broken the £4bn mark in sales over a half-year period for the first time in the company’s 28-year operation of the lottery.