Facelift just the ticket for National Lottery

The National Lottery is to undergo a significant facelift as its new owners swap the yellow ticket slips for green, allow shops to cash larger amounts of money and revamp scratch card designs.

The changes, which are expected to be implemented in the coming months, are the brainchild of new owners Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) — a group which includes UK lottery giants Camelot and previous owners An Post.

In February PLI bid €405m — €100m more than its nearest bidder — to operate the licence for the next 20 years, becoming the first private owners of the Irish Lottery.

As part of its new look the lotto ticket slips, which are currently yellow, will change to green while scratch cards will also look different, the Irish Examiner has learnt. The new designs will allow shop workers to differentiate between old and new scratch cards and lottery tickets.

More than 60% of the adult population play National Lottery games regularly and last year Lotto players shared €119m in prizes while scratch card sales alone were worth almost €168m.

Representatives of PLI are travelling around the country, training shop personnel in the new and upgraded system which will include optical reading functions. Around 4,000 new ticket terminals are now being distributed to Irish retail outlets..

In addition, shops will now be able to cash prizes up to €2,500. Currently, shops can cash up to €250. Under the new system, if they cash more than this, they will earn a 1% commission on the winnings.

PLI are expected to carry out a complete overhaul of the website, lottery.ie, and to push more people towards online sales.

On its website, the Camelot group said it has “exciting plans” for the Irish Lottery and “will be significantly investing in its expansion and development, including a world leading interactive web platform”.

In the UK, Camelot runs the most successful interactive lottery in Europe with online sales of €1.45bn. It also provides consultancy services to lotteries worldwide — including those in New York, California, Massachusetts, and Canada.

RGData, the representative association for thousands of Irish retail outlets, is worried that a push towards online may disrupt trade for retailers. Its director general Tara Buckley said the lotto was very important for local shops and that she did not want online to “cannibalise” traditional sales.

“Let them develop online by all means, but not at the expense of the local retailer.”

PLI, however, believes that more online sales will mean bigger jackpots which will result in more people playing the lottery overall.

More than 55,000 players here win cash prizes each week and the jackpot tonight is heading for €6m.

This week, two players won prizes of €250,000 — one from Waterford and one online.