National Lottery Millionaires
Last Updated: Friday 18th June 2010, 11:18
Can you remember what you were doing 15 years ago yesterday? Probably not. But what if we told you that 15 years ago yesterday the National Lottery launched. You probably now remember that just like myself you were sitting in front of the television grasping that little pink ticket expecting to land six balls and see your life change forever. Like us you are probably still waiting to order your Ferrari but its reassuring to see there are 2300 National Lottery millionaires.
Since Noel Edmonds hosted the first National Lottery prize draw on November 19th, 1994 there are now 2300 new millionaires in the UK. In the past fifteen years they have paid out a whopping £35 billion in prize money and raised over £23 million for good causes which equates to £25 million every single week since the National Lottery launched, this is like hosting a Children in Need once a week!
There are lots of interesting facts about the National Lottery; here are a few of our personal favourites:
- The most frequently drawn number is 38 which has being drawn 251 times. Spookily the unluckiest number is 13 which has only been drawn 170 times.
- The youngest lottery winner was 16 year old Belfast school girl Tracey makin who had only played for a few weeks when she scooped £1,055,171 in 1998.
- The total year sales of lottery tickets are great then the combined annual sales of Coca-Cola, Warburton Bread, Walkers Crisps, Hovis Bread, Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Nescafé, Andrex, Lucozade, Kingsmill Bread and Robinson's soft drinks.
- Some of the funniest lottery funding claims included a man who wanted to teach time travel and a man who wanted to build a replica of the Starship enterprise so trekies could meet in a safe place.
- The biggest jackpot ever was shared by three ticker holders and was worth £42,008,610 on January 6, 1996,
It's good to remember that the National Lottery is not just about making people rich. Thanks to this one game there has been some amazing work done for charity and a lot of lives changed for the better; long may it continue.
