The National Lottery Celebrates 20 Years of Changing Lives!

As The National Lottery celebrates 20 years since the first draw (19 November 1994), the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon David Cameron MP, has hailed how National Lottery players have helped to transform communities across the UK. To mark the moment, The National Lottery has announced that 450,000 grants have now been awarded, benefiting from the £32 billion raised to date, and over 3,700 millionaires created.

“Since its launch, The National Lottery has changed lives across the length and breadth of the UK,” said the Prime Minister.

“It’s made its mark on our landscape in the shape of the Angel of the North, the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and the Millennium Stadium. And, having raised over £32 billion for Good Cause projects, it’s making a difference in our communities too; preserving treasured heritage sites, supporting the arts, propelling our sports stars to even greater heights and making a real difference to hundreds of thousands of smaller grassroots projects.

“Sir John Major’s vision has had a truly positive impact on people and communities in every corner of the UK and, 20 years on, he and the entire country should be incredibly proud of what The National Lottery has achieved.”

National Lottery funding has changed lives in every community, providing a vital lifeline to projects that are the bedrock of society. Sir Chris Hoy experienced life as an athlete, both before and after National Lottery funding had its impact.

Sir Chris said: “The National Lottery has transformed the way sport is funded in the UK over the last 20 years. Thanks to National Lottery players, athletes have a chance to train and compete on a level playing field with other nations around the world, and it’s made a huge difference to the success of the British Team. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, we won one gold medal but at London 2012 Team GB won 29.

“Personally, National Lottery funding changed my life. It gave me the opportunity to focus on cycling full time, as well as access to the best coaches, facilities and training camps.”

As well as the positive difference to sport in the UK, The National Lottery has had a hugely beneficial impact across the arts, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors, creating thousands of jobs and millions of training and volunteering opportunities.

Andy Duncan, CEO of National Lottery operator Camelot, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, hundreds of thousands of projects that have transformed the lives of people and communities the length and breadth of the country have been made possible. Think of your last visit to a park, sports centre, museum or theatre – the chances are it has had National Lottery money.

Having raised over £32 billion for these projects and paid out more than £53 billion in prize money, The National Lottery is, without doubt, truly life-changing.”

At 20, The National Lottery is still transforming lives – every week over £33 million is raised for projects and six million winners are created. Projects supported include the large, such as the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and The Lowry in Manchester, and the small, such as village halls and public parks, with 70% of grants being for less than £10,000 and an average of 144 grants for every postcode district.

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