National Lottery sales up due to EuroMillions win

Dolores McNamara's €115 million European lotto win helped drive a 2005 sales increase at the National Lottery.

The State-owned company yesterday reported that sales grew 6.6 per cent to €616.4 million last year from €578.3 million in 2004.

This was its strongest level of growth since 2001. However, sales of Irish Lotto games fell by €15 million.

Incoming National Lottery director Dermot Griffin said one of the factors behind the overall revenue growth was the addition of the EuroMillions lotto, which accounted for close to 10 per cent of revenues, with sales of €59.1 million for the year.

It was launched in October 2004, and was responsible for €5.6 million in sales that year. The National Lottery's figures show that most of the €38 million growth achieved last year was down to the European product.

Ms McNamara, from Limerick, won the EuroMillions jackpot last year when she scooped the €115 million prize in July.

EuroMillions is a lotto-style draw made up of a pool with contributions from nine different European state lotteries. Its jackpots generally measure in the tens of millions, but regularly top €100 million.

Mr Griffin said Ms McNamara's windfall had aided revenue growth. "It consolidated EuroMillions' position and boosted sales."

He added that her win raised the profile of the European lottery and helped convince Irish consumers that it was possible for them to win if they played it.

On the night Ms McNamara won, another Irish person won €400,000 from the same draw.

Chairman Donal Curtin of An Post acknowledged that the National Lottery had lost some customers from its existing games to the EuroMillions product, but said that it was no more than expected.

Mr Griffin said many people were playing both games. "EuroMillions is now seen as the Friday night draw and the Lotto as the Saturday night draw by these customers," he said.

During last year, the Government distributed €203.2 million to beneficiary projects. This was a 6 per cent increase on the €191.1 million it handed out in 2004. It was also the first time that the figure topped €200 million. The total distributed since the lottery's foundation in 1987 stands at €2.4 billion.

The total amount in prizes paid out by the National Lottery in 2005 came to €324.8 million, a 6.5 per cent increase on the previous year. This was separate to the €115 million European jackpot.

The company is working on introducing internet and mobile-phone based games. Answering concerns that this would open them up to under 18s (lottery tickets can only be sold to over 18s), Mr Curtin said the board had already discussed the issue. He stressed that the company would be using the best available methods of ensuring that this did not happen.