Internet Gambling Drives UK Lottery Sales Spiking Upward
Camelot, the company operating the United Kingdom's National Lottery, says overall sales are up better than four percent over last year. Refiguring the sales promotional and prize methods helped the British lottery to better gambling sales than had been seen in more than ten years.
Driving the increase in gaming business for the lottery is the spike in online ticket sales. Camelot officials say Internet and mobile sales have risen thirty-two percent over the past year.
Other factors contributing to the lottery's health have been a highly publicized series of big jackpots hit by players, as well as innovative promotional tie-ins by scratch-off tickets to pop culture, including movie figures like James Bond and Indiana Jones.
"The main reason people play is to win large amounts of money. Any big jackpot win in the UK gives a huge boost to ticket sales of that particular game," said a lottery spokesman.
The methods employed to garner the sharp increase in lottery sales mirror those recommended for US lotteries by a consulting study earlier this year. However, US lotteries are finding expansions to the Internet being hindered inadvertently by the UIGEA ban, which is supposed to exempt them from payment blocks.
Charity officials say the lottery in the UK contributed $2.25 billion last year, an increase of over $41 million.
"Charities and voluntary organisations across Scotland are facing really tough times, with increasing demand for their services and decreasing income," said Lucy McTernan, deputy CEO of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organizations. She welcomed the news that lottery sales are creating new charitable contributions.
