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Irish Lottery

On March 23rd, 1987 the first scratch cards of the National Lottery (Ireland - not the UK national lottery) were issued, these were the first steps of the Irish lottery. The establishment of the National Lottery was possible after the Irish parliament (the Oireachtas) had passed the National Lottery Act, supporting initiatives in the areas of sport, recreation, health and welfare, national heritage and arts, as well as the Irish language.

Over 3 billion (euro) were raised so far in interest of these causes. Since lottery was introduced 2/3 of the adult population confirms regular participation in at least one lottery game. Until 2009 tickets were sold only by authorized retailers (2008 reported sales from 3,675 retailers across Ireland) and in 2009 the new online-based tickets were introduced.

The Lottery's Games

Since the first scratch card launched in 1987, the National Lottery has introduced a variety of lottery games including: Lotto, Lotto Plus, Monday Million drawings, television bingo, televised game shows, a "Millionaire Raffle," and membership in the pan-European EuroMillions. The profits coming from the different were: 59.7% Lottery related games, 20.3% Scratch cards, 16.9% EuroMillions and 3.1% miscellaneous games. The National Lottery has strict rules as for lottery playing. Lottery tickets cannot be sold to minors; all players must be 18 of age when purchasing or claiming lottery prizes.

All prizes are paid in a single sum and are tax-free. The following games prizes must be claimed within 90 days of the matching drawing dates: Monday Million, Lotto, and EuroMillions

History of the Game

The National Lottery Lotto game has evolved since it was launched and was changed a few times. The first Lotto draw was on Saturday, 16 April 1988 and it was a 6 out of 36 game. The jackpot had a guaranteed sum of £250,000 and players had to match all 6 balls correctly. Matching 4 or 5 balls correctly awarded the players secondary smaller prizes. The numbers were drawn from a machine containing ping-pong like balls.

At the cost of £0.50 per game and with odds of 1: 1,947,792 a player could attempt to buy all possible combination (estimated costs would be £973,896). That is a very dangerous state as these are realistic costs for a group of people. In 1992 the jackpot reached £1.7 million and a syndicate of people won the jackpot and all secondary prizes by buying all possible combinations. As a response the National Lottery updated the game and it became 6 out of 39 with bonus ball. It also raised the minimum jackpot prize to £500,000.

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In 1994 the game was upgraded again. This time the Irish lotto had to start competing with the British Lotto and the game became 6 out of 42. This allowed more jackpot rollovers, hence creating larger jackpots, attracting people again to bet on the local game. In addition the "Quick Pick" option was added and people could let the computer choose their numbers for them. In 2002 with the Euro being introduced to Ireland the prizes were matched and raised accordingly. After 6 years of sales regression the National Lottery once more changed the game in November 2006. This time a minimum jackpot of €2 million was established as well as a raise in the second place prize for matching 5 numbers plus bonus ball to a minimum of €25,000. The Lotto was also raised to be 6 out of 45. 2009 marked no changes to the Lotto itself only to its sales as the National Lottery introduced the online selling of Lotto tickets.