The UK National Lottery has seen a substantial increase in sales for the second year
Online branch boosts UK National Lottery
Despite the world's leading lotteries are reporting on financial troubles, the UK National Lottery has seen a substantial increase in sales for the second year running. In the 12 months to the end of March its revenue rose 3% to £4.77bn ($US 8.6 bn). The major factor behind the growth has been found sales through the internet, mobile phone text messages and interactive TV, which soared more than 600% to £87.5m ($US 160.2 m).
The current surge has altered a six-year trend of falling sales as the lottery launched new games and different ways of playing last year. According to , the move resulted in providing more money for good causes (up by 5%). The revenue of the main Lotto game was unchanged at £3.23bn ($ US 5.9 bn), while sales of themed scratchcards and EuroMillions are going ahead. In general, the past tree years saw an unprecedented boom in Britain gambling industry causing an estimated fivefold increase in the amount of money wagered to £40bn about $US 73 bn).
The lottery expansion into some new areas was slammed by anti-gaming groups. However, the operator Camelot argued it has the toughest protection systems in the world. The company is currently developing a new way of playing games that will allow tickets to be paid for at supermarket checkouts.
