Lottery money for good causes falls to lowest level in 8 years

Money generated for good causes by the National Lottery has hit its lowest level in eight years on the back falling tickets sales linked to fewer jackpot rollovers and ongoing difficulties in retail.

According to its annual report, the newly privatised franchise saw revenue from ticket and scratch card sales drop to €685.2 million last year, down from €735.1 million in 2012.

As a result, money for good causes, calculated as a fixed portion of overall turnover, dropped by €20 million to €205.9 million in 2013, its lowest level since 2005.

The lottery blamed the decline in sales on the lack of big jackpots, particularly in its EuroMillions draws, coupled with a “difficult retail trading environment”.

The business was recently sold to Premier Lotteries Ireland, a private consortium made up of An Post and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan - parent of UK operator Camelot, which is due to take over at the helm early next year, once a transitioning process is complete.

The poor sales numbers indicate the scale of the task ahead of the new operator as its sets about recouping its €405 million outlay for the business.

The National Lottery has now seen annual sales drop for five straight years - from a 2008 high of €840 million to €685 million in 2013.

The report showed punters shared winnings of €382.7 million last year, representing 56 per cent of sales. Overall, there were 25 jackpot wins last year, with 23 players becoming millionaires.

The lottery said the high rate of player participation continued during the year with 62 per cent of all adults playing one or more National Lottery games on a regular basis.

Along with the big jackpot wins there were 757 winners of prizes over €10,000 across all games in the course of the year

Lotto related draw games generated 45 per cent of overall turnover with sales of €310.4 million in 2013, including Lotto sales of €229.5 million, Lotto Plus sales of €67.9 million and Lotto 5-4-3-2-1 sales of €13 million.

Scratch card sales rose 2.5 per cent to €167.7 million from €163.5 million the previous year.

EuroMillions sales were €117.8 million, a 10.4 per cent fall on 2012 when sales were boosted by a strong run of 17 jackpots over €100 million.

On the upside, online sales increased by 30 per cent to €11.2 million as the number of registered players increased to 57,000 by end of the year.

However, the lottery’s new Play Online channel, launched in early March, recorded a four-fold jump in registrations to its revamped website in the first month of going live this year, and now has over 90,000 registered players.

The business’s digital arm, which is being marketed through a series of TV adverts for the first time under the new licensing terms, represents the fastest growing part of its business.

"Internet and mobile play will be an important area for the future development of the National Lottery and will have a strong focus in 2014," chief executive Dermot Griffin said.