Under the National Lottery Act 2013, any price increase in National Lottery tickets is a matter for decision by the operator of the National Lottery, while any change to the scheme of a National Lottery game must be approved by the National Lottery Regulator, who acts independently in the discharge of his functions.
Under the legislation, the operator decides on the prizes to be given, subject to the prizes distributed in any given year being at least 50% of the total sales revenue received by the operator in respect of National Lottery tickets in that year.
The following are the amounts that have been transferred from the National Lottery Fund to the Exchequer for each year for good causes:
2008: €265m
2009: €275m
2010: €250m
2011: €230m
2012: €220m
2013: €210m
2014 (Old Licence): €170m it is anticipated that a further €24m will be transferred to the Exchequer in respect of unclaimed prizes amount and transition costs that did not arise
2014 (New Licence): €8m - representing less than 3 weeks under the new Licence due to timing of receipts and payments
2015: €193m
2016 (up to August): €141m
In addition, a fee of €405m was received into the Exchequer for the National Lottery licence in 2014.
In the 18 months pre and post transition to the new licence holder, Premier Lotteries Ireland Ltd (PLI), the lottery jackpot information is as follows: 25 jackpots in the 18 months prior, highest being €12.2m; 20 jackpots in the 18 months post, highest being €13.8m.
The 2015 accounts of PLI have been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and are published on the Oireachtas website.
