National Lottery sales hit record €578.3m

The National Lottery has announced record sales of €578.3m for 2004, up 3.4%.

Total sales in 2004 increased by 3.4% to €578.3m, up from €559.2m in 2003. Sales of instant games were particularly strong at €160.2m, an increase of €13.7m.

The balance of the growth came mainly from the new EuroMillions game, which recorded sales of €5.6m for the 13 weeks following its launch.

The Lottery reported a record €191.1m raised for beneficiary projects, up from €186.7m in 2003.

This represents 33% of total sales and brings to over €2.2bn the total funds raised by the National Lottery since 1987 for distribution by the Government to good causes throughout Ireland.

Speaking at the publication of the National Lottery's 2004 Annual Report, Donal Curtin, chairman, said that 2004

The combined sales level of the three Lotto games - Lotto, Lotto Plus and Lotto 5-4-3-2-1, was €392.2m.

Sales of the main Lotto game were marginally down by 1.5% to €275.6m. Lotto continues to be the biggest single National Lottery game, accounting for 48% of total sales during the year.

The overall prize payout level was 52.7% in 2004, with €305m returned to players in prizes, compared with €294.3m in the previous year.

17 new individual millionaires were created as a result of Lotto jackpot wins.

Total operating costs were kept to €82.2m, or 14.2% of sales.