I am informed by the Regulator of the National Lottery that, as set out in the Licence to Operate the National Lottery, prize winnings above €15,000 must be claimed directly from the National Lottery, where winners are required to identify themselves to the operator PLI; winners of most small prizes collect them in retail outlets anonymously. Thus the National Lottery does not have information on the number of winners of prizes less than €15,000 in a particular period.
The information that can be provided on the number of prize winnings is as follows :
• of €1m or above in value in 2022 was 34 and in 2021 was 31;
• of €500,000 or above in value and below €1m in value in 2022 was 30 and in 2021 was 49 ; and
• of €15,000 or above in value and below €500,000 in value in 2022 was 540 and in 2021 was 501
Note: a single cheque issues for each prize win; where a prize is won by a syndicate this is treated as a singular claim.
In relation to the part of the question concerning advertising spend, I am informed by the Regulator that the Operator, PLI, has responded that it considers such information to be commercially sensitive for PLI / National Lottery, as it is for all other commercial entities, and, consequently, PLI is not in a position to provide consent for the release of that information.
