Jubilee and football blamed for low sales of lottery
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Your support makes all the difference.The Queen Mother's funeral, the golden jubilee and the World Cup were blamed yesterday for poor sales of national lottery tickets.
Dianne Thompson, chief executive of Camelot, operator of the newly renamed Lotto draw, told MPs that weekend events from the jubilee celebrations to England's World Cup game against Denmark made lottery players stay away.
Sales for the 15 June draw, the day of England's clash with Denmark, fell to £41.8m, the lowest weekly sales since the lottery was launched in 1994, and £2.8m below the previous record low less than a month earlier.
Ms Thompson told the Select Committee on Culture: "We have also had a very disappointing time in the last two months, starting sadly with the Queen Mother's funeral but going into the FA Cup, the World Cup. England playing on a Saturday is bad news for us." The two public holidays for the golden jubilee also led to a fall in sales, she said.
On 6 April, the weekend before the Queen Mother's funeral, sales of lottery tickets were £44.6m but they jumped to £55.2m on 18 May, the week after the relaunch. They slumped to £46.7m on 1 June at the start of the jubilee weekend and fell to £41.8m on 15 June for the crucial England game.
Only weeks ago, Camelot renamed its main draw Lotto and embarked on a £26m relaunch fronted by the comedian Billy Connolly, based around the slogan, "Don't live a little, live a Lotto".
Camelot said the relaunch was still taking effect and predicted sales would rise. A spokeswoman said a new game to be unveiled next month and a promotional drive later this year would help sales.
Ministers are to publish a consultation paper on the future of the lottery franchising process after the fiasco of the bidding process in 2000.
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