The National Lottery is the United Kingdom’s main lottery game. Since it began in 1994 the National Lottery numbers are drawn every Saturday evening and offers large multi-million tax free lump sum prizes.
To enter the draw costs 1 (approximately $2) and is open to anyone over the age of 16 and who is resident within the United Kingdom. In recent years, global lottery syndicates have been allowed to develop. Basically this is a way for those outside the country to play as part of a syndicate, providing the allocated leader lives in the United Kingdom.
For each play, fifty percent of the fee is allocated to the prize fund and a further twenty-eight percent is donated to what is referred to as a good cause fund. This was stipulated by the government when the National Lottery was established after pressure to ensure that the active encouragement of gambling would provide some general public benefit. Any unclaimed prize money is also donated to this fund.
Since its inception the National Lottery has donated in excess of $40 billion toward good causes. There are many good examples of how this money has been spent. Much of it has helped to build and repair education centres, children’s homes and other regeneration projects.
