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| Find out below information on Camelot's operation of The National Lottery, how the Lottery is regulated and useful links to those organisations involved in running the different functions. |
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| Camelot Group plc |
Camelot is the operator of the UK National Lottery. It employs 950 staff who work from a head office in Watford, Hertfordshire and four regional centres across the UK. The objective of all staff is to maximise revenue for Good Causes and the Government through lottery games in the most efficient and socially responsible way. This involves creating, marketing and promoting new games, running and developing the lottery infrastructure, providing services for players and winners and working in partnership with retailers.
Camelot is a private company, wholly owned by five shareholders; Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Royal Mail Enterprises, De La Rue Holdings plc, Fujitsu Services Ltd and Thales Electronics who each share a 20% stake in the company. Its full board comprises of a non-executive chairman, four independent non-executive directors, three executive directors and non-executive representatives from each of its shareholder companies.
As operator of The National Lottery, Camelot's role is critical to the lottery's success - but it is only one role in the asymmetrical partnership of organisations responsible for running the different functions of The National Lottery as follows:
- The Government, empowered by the National Lottery Act 1993, through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport appoints and directs:
- The National Lottery Commission, after a competition against an Invitation to Tender awards the licence to run The National Lottery and regulates:
- Camelot, the lottery operator, raises the money for:
- Six Good Causes approved by Parliament which select and allocate funds to 16 distribution bodies. Funding to one of the 16 distribution bodies, the Millennium Commission, ceased in August 2001. These in turn decide which beneficiaries should receive funding.
For links to the websites of the above organisations, please visit the Useful Links page. |
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| Keeping the Lottery safe |
Security procedures are built into every level of Camelot's activity - in the computer systems, retail network, the process of buying and validating tickets, the actual draw process and the recruitment of staff.
As is to be expected with any lottery, there were initially a number of attempts to defraud The National Lottery on both the on-line game and Instants. Camelot has been quick to identify and stop such action to ensure that players, the Good Causes and the National Lottery remain protected.
CCTV footage of individuals purchasing lottery tickets has also helped police to confirm a relationship existed between a murder victim and a suspect who denied knowing the victim.
Camelot can provide the police with the details about the exact time and place when a ticket was purchased, by using information on each ticket (eg barcode) and data from Camelot's computer system. This information can help the police place suspects in specific locations at an exact time and this has helped shatter false alibis.
A team of Security Investigators, located in regions throughout the UK, investigate all frauds and attempted frauds on the Lottery. They have also helped police to solve crimes including murders, muggings, armed robbery, burglaries and drugs rings.
The lottery draws are protected by extremely high security. The draw machines, which are accredited by the British Standards Institution (BSI), are kept in containers with two security seals which can only be opened by the independent auditor and the draw manager. The draw machines are tested before the draw in the presence of the draw manager, independent auditor and The National Lottery Commission. Once the pre-draw checks are made the machines are kept under closed circuit television surveillance.
All lottery balls used in the draws are stored in sealed security containers. To ensure that no numbers have a better chance of being drawn, the balls are examined for uniformity by the Office of National Weights and Measures regularly.
For more information on how Camelot ensures the security and integrity of the lottery, please visit the Camelot website. |
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| Technology |
In January 2002, Camelot successfully installed a major new IT system to drive The National Lottery, the largest conversion in the lottery world. The system change was the result of a 12 month £90 million project involving Compaq Computer, G-Tech and Deloitte & Touche, signifying the end of Camelot's VAX system deployed in the first lottery licence.
At the heart of the system is the Alpha platform, a renowned industry standard, which improves even further on the advanced technologies Camelot put in place to create one of the world's most efficient lottery systems when the lottery was launched in 1994. The new mainframes have brought significant improvements to the system - although designed to manage three transactions per minute per terminal, the new system has the potential to process at a far greater rate. This will allow the 25,000 on-line terminals to cope with the exciting future developments Camelot has in store for The National Lottery.
In February 2003, Camelot launched Instant Win Games - the first National Lottery games to go live on the internet. The games are a mixture of of innovative, interactive games and popular scratchcards available on the National Lottery website at www.national-lottery.co.uk
Players can now purchase tickets for National Lottery games on the internet, interactive TV and mobile phones. Lotto and Daily Play went online in December 2003 and Lotto launched on Sky Active in April 2004. Players can now also play EuroMillions - Europe's biggest lottery game - on the internet and through Sky Active.
Play by Text is the new service from The National Lottery which enables players to buy tickets for Lotto, Daily Play and EuroMillions by text message. For further information on how to play through these channels, please click on the following links: Play Lotto online, Play through Sky Active or Play by Text. |
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| History |
Key dates in The National Lottery's history:
21 October 1993
The National Lottery is established by an Act of Parliament.
25 May 1994
Out of eight bids, The Director General of OFLOT announced Camelot Group plc as the chosen operator.
14 November 1994
National Lottery on-line tickets went on sale in 10,000 retail outlets - the world's biggest on-line lottery launch.
19 November 1994
First National Lottery draw - 22 million viewers tuned into the BBC show.
21 March 1995
Launch of National Lottery Instants which immediately became the UK's largest impulse brand.
26 September 1995
£1 billion raised for the Good Causes.
6 January 1996
First double rollover - £42 million jackpot. Total rollover sales reached £127.8 million.
17 March 1996
Launch of Lucky Dip - randomly generated selection of numbers for the on-line game.
5 February 1997
First mid-week draw, sales reached £33 million.
1 June 1997
Camelot raised its Good Causes target from £9 billion to £10 billion by September 2001, due to The National Lottery's success.
4 February 1998
500 millionaires created.
11 April 1998
£5 billion raised for the Good Causes.
19 November 1998
£6 billion raised for the Good Causes.
7 June 1999
Camelot launched The National Lottery Thunderball game.
12 July 1999
£7 billion raised for the Good Causes.
1 November 1999
Big Draw 2000, a special Millennium Draw, is launched.
31 December 1999
Big Draw 2000, the special Millennium Draw, takes place.
10 June 2000
1,000 millionaires created.
5 October 2000
Camelot raised its Good Causes target from £10 billion to £10.5 billion by the end of the first licence in September 2001.
13 November 2000
A twice-weekly, Jackpot only game Lottery Extra launched.
13 November 2000
Big Draw 2001, a special New Year's Eve draw, launched.
15 November 2000
First Lottery Extra draw took place. £1 million Jackpot.
19 December 2000
The National Lottery Commission announced that Camelot had been chosen as the preferred bidder for the second seven-year National Lottery licence, which began on January 27 2002.
31 December 2000
Big Draw 2001, a special New Year's Eve draw, took place.
11 September 2001
Camelot reaches £10.5 billion landmark for Good Causes.
31 September 2001
End of the first licence period. 1 October 2001 Start of the Interim licence period.
5 November 2001
Tickets went on sale for Christmas Millionaire Maker, the special Christmas Eve draw.
24 December 2001
Christmas Millionaire Maker, special Christmas Eve draw, took place.
27 January 2002
Second National Lottery licence begins.
29 April 2002
Camelot announces plans to re-launch the Lottery including changing the names of the Saturday and Wednesday games to Lotto and Lotto Extra.
18 May 2002
First Lotto draw
10 July 2002
Launch of Lotto HotPicks
17 October 2002
Launch of mid-week Thunderball (first draw 23 October) |
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