Irish people spent over €1 billion on the National Lottery last year

People love the lotto, it seems.

National Lottery ticket sales exceeded €1 billion last year, according to operator Premier Lotteries Ireland full year results for 2021. The operator also heavily increased its profits to €25.3 million, up from €14.6 million in 2020. The company said that approximately 90% of all revenue generated from sales of National Lottery games was returned to communities. This comes in the form of prizes (56%), funding good causes (29%) and commission to retailers (5%) in Ireland.

“This was the first year in the National Lottery’s history in which amounts raised for good causes exceeded €300 million and also, in which ticket sales exceeded €1 billion,” said PLI chief executive Andrew Alger.

”On average, good causes contributions have grown by 9 per cent, while ticket sales have grown by 8 per cent year on year since PLI’s first year of stewardship of the National Lottery.”

He added: "The record-breaking year of ticket sales coincided with further improvements to the comprehensive player protection measures which the National Lottery provides. "In 2021, we further bolstered our player protection systems in our digital channel and commissioned Cambridge Health Alliance, a division of Harvard Medical School, to identify further opportunities to improve our system of player protection controls both in retail and on our online channels." In 2021, the National Lottery made headlines as the Lotto Jackpot was not won for 50 consecutive draws, eventually culminating in a draw which was guaranteed to have a winner.