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| Fun Stuff - Lottery Information
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Use the Cleveleys
Lottery numbers script to choose your own numbers. With this program you can
choose a random set of upto TEN different numbers, This can also be used for
the Thunderball and the National Lottery by changing the values in the
boxes.
Remember me WHEN you win......just a little note will do......
as long as it has a BIG cheque stapled to it !! |
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Lottery
Information.....
What are the odds of
winning?
Jackpot - match 6 main nos.: 1 in 13,983,816
Match 5 main nos. + bonus no.: 1 in
2,330,636
Match 5:
1 in 55,492
Match
4: 1 in 1,033
Match 3: 1 in 57
Where does the ticket money
go?
For every £1 spent on the UK National Lottery:
45p is
returned in prizes for that draw.
28p goes to good causes, split five ways between arts,
sports, charity, heritage and millennium boards.
12p goes to the UK government in
Lottery Tax.
5p is kept by Camelot Group plc for running costs and
profit.
5p is earnt
by the retailer.
5p is reserved for future Super Draws and Instant Win
scratchcard games.
Camelot
expect to give £9 billion to the National Lottery Distribution Fund,
£4 billion to the Government in lottery duty and over £15 billion
in prizes over the first 7-year license.
The Computer
System:
The National
Lottery has one of the most advanced computer and communications networks in
the world. There are two computer centres used to operate The National Lottery.
Racal Network Services have created an X25 data network and a VSAT (satellite)
network to link the computers with retailers. Over 1,000 concentrators at
specially located sites around the country link up the whole system, including
individual connections to each retailer terminal.
State of the art software was developed to enable vast volumes of
transactions to be handled quickly and securely. The software used represents
the equivalent of over 300 man years of development and is believed to have a
larger capacity than the air traffic control system at Heathrow airport. The
whole network can handle 400,000 plays a minute processing six megabytes of
information, the equivalent of two encyclopedias' worth of information, every
second.
What Happens To
Your National Lottery Game Ticket
An 'on-line' play follows a definitive path through the computer
system from the point the lottery entry is created until the entry is finally
removed from the operating system files. Although the time frames may vary, the
life cycle of a ticket follows a few basic steps:
Play...
A lottery entry is created when a ticket is
purchased at a National Lottery retailer. Tickets are usually purchased and the
numbers recorded using a playslip; however, your numbers can be entered
directly into the terminal by asking your retailer. These numbers are then
transmitted via the private National Lottery communications network to the
central computer system. When your numbers are received and recorded by the
central computer the terminal in the retailer prints out the ticket which is
given back to you. The communication from the retailer's terminal to the
central computer system and back again takes less than five seconds at busy
times; less for quieter periods.
Recording Transmission......
The central computer system keeps a record
of all daily play transactions. It also stores information on cancellations and
winning cashes (people who have cashed winning tickets).
Close of Play.....
At 11.00pm every day the central
computer system closes and programs are run to separate all the play
transactions from the cancellations and winning cashes into files for each day.
These daily files are then scanned on a draw day to select the winning
tickets.
Draw
Time.....
At 7.30pm
on Saturday and 7.30pm on Wednesday entries for that evening's particular draw
close. As the numbers are drawn live on the TV, they are entered into the
central computer system. Then all plays entered for that draw are scanned, not
forgetting multi-draw plays, and then the number of winners for that draw and
the consequent prizes are calculated.
Winning Cashes.....
The winning plays for every draw are
transferred to a new file. When a winning ticket is claimed and validated at a
retailer, the information on the ticket is cross-referenced with this file for
verification. The central computer system then sends a message to the
retailer's terminal to confirm that the ticket is a winner and the amount that
should be paid.
Purging......
Once a winning ticket has been claimed, the
central computer system changes the status of the ticket to indicate that it
has been paid. After a short period of time these paid tickets are cleared out
of the file. Unclaimed winning tickets are kept in the file for 180 days for
you to claim.
After 180
days the unclaimed winnings, together with any interest earned, are paid to The
National Lottery Distribution Fund and the winning ticket record is
purged.
The Computerised Lottery
Today.......
During
the last 20 years, the advance of technology has significantly helped the
operations of lotteries around the world. Previously, lotteries operated using
labour intensive manual methods for ticket printing, distribution and winner
selection. Today, however, lottery games are being converted to on-line
systems, like The UK National Lottery, which take advantage of high speed
computer processing capabilities and high levels of security.
The private National Lottery
communications network in the UK provides fast transmission of the lottery
entry using a combination of satellite links, leased private telephone lines
and fibre optics cables. The specially developed computer software which
records the plays, maintains accounting records, integrates security features
and provides reporting capabilities is provided by GTECH who are the world
leader in lottery technology and the only company to focus their attention
solely on computerised lottery systems. They are involved in over 80% of the
world's lotteries.
To
ensure that the lottery computer operates everyday between 6.00 am and 11.00 pm
three separate back up systems are available at two separate locations, all of
which constantly receive the same transaction information so that any one can
take over at short notice if another one fails.
Additionally there is a team of thirty
people responsible for looking after the lottery systems working twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a
year.
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