Back in 1994 the world of gambling in the United Kingdom was changed for ever when the National Lottery Commission awarded the  Camelot group the licence to run the first ever National Lottery. Before this point the biggest prizes in the country were around £50,000 on the football coupons so the chance of becoming an instant millionaire sparked everyone’s interest especially as all prizes awarded were totally tax free.

For every £1 spent on the National Lottery 50p goes towards the prize fund, 28p goes to good causes, 12 is paid as duty to the government, 5p goes to the retailer as commission and the remaining 4.5p goes to Camelot to cover all operating costs and a 0.5p profit. Anyone over the age of 16 can take part in the National Lottery and there are no exclusions for foreign players so anyone visiting the UK can purchase a ticket and win the jackpot.

There are massive jackpots to be won from the National Lottery if players match all six numbers from a range of 1 to 49. In addition to this there are plenty of other jackpots for matching differing numbers of balls ranging from just three up to five and a bonus ball. The lottery machines and sets of balls are all chosen at random nod everything is carefully monitored, the odds of winning the main jackpot are 13,983,816 to one. Because of this there are regular rollover draws that have generated jackpots in excess of £55 million.

These days though the National Lottery is not the only lottery available to us, thanks to the internet we can now take part in lotteries all over the World. Euromillions is a European wide lottery open to residents of member countries with a draw taking place every Friday night. Because there are more players adding to the prize pot it generates much larger jackpots that regularly top the £50 million mark.

Over in the states things changed this year as new rules now allow states to offer both the Powerball Lottery and Mega Millions. Previously states were only allowed to run one or the other which means now both lotteries have access to many more players eager to buy tickets in the hope of becoming the next multi-millionaire. These lotteries have produced massive jackpots of nearly $400 million in the past so the appeal to UK players is obvious.

With lotteries getting bigger and bigger all the time it begs the question “how long will it be before we see a World Lottery?” Just imagine the impact such a lottery could have especially if it was based around the UK system with a large percentage of the money going to help the needy. Combine this with the inevitable record breaking jackpots and it seems like only a matter of time before this becomes a reality.