September 2022
The was the first ever National Lottery game in the UK. Originally called “The National Lottery”, the following history timeline highlights some of the key changes to the game since it launched in November 1994.
19th November 1994
The first ever National Lottery draw.
5th February 1997
The first Wednesday National Lottery draw.
18th May 2002
The name changes from “The National Lottery” to “Lotto”
10th February 2011
The Lotto rollover limit was increased to four draws (from three).
5th October 2013
The price of a ticket increased from £1 to £2. The prize for matching three numbers increased from £10 to £25. The Lotto Raffle was launched, adding an additional fifty £20,000 prizes to every draw.
8th October 2015
The Lotto Raffle was discontinued and replaced by the Lotto Millionaire Raffle. This included one prize of £1 million and 20 prizes of £20,000. The rollover limit of four draws was removed. The game changed from a 6/49 to a 6/59 lottery system. A Lucky Dip prize was introduced for matching two numbers.
18th November 2018
The fixed prize tiers were all increased for cash prizes below the jackpot. The maximum number of rollovers was set to 5. After this time, the jackpot prize would be filtered down to the lower prize tiers if the jackpot was not won on the 6th draw. The Lotto Millionaire Raffle was discontinued.
7th November 2020
A £5 prize for matching two numbers was added to every “Must Be Won” draw when the lottery jackpot rolled down after not being won for 6 consecutive draws in a row.