This month, The National Lottery celebrates 30 years of raising money for Good Causes.
Launched in the UK in 1994, over the last 30 years, players of The National Lottery – and retailers through selling them their tickets – have raised more than £49 billion for Good Causes. Working out at around £30 million each week, that has funded almost 700,000 individual projects across the UK, spanning causes across arts, sport, heritage and community.
With such huge amounts being raised over the past 30 years, it’s important to remember the retailers who have been on this journey since day one. To help mark The National Lottery’s 30th birthday, Convenience Store heard from two retailers that where there at the beginning.
Raj Patel has been running News Bit since 1988., and when The National Lottery first launched in 1994, it was one of the only shops to sell The National Lottery in Raj’s local area of Bushey, Watford Hertfordshire. To date, Raj’s store has raised more than £700,000 for National Lottery Good Causes.
Commenting on the launch back in 1994, Raj said it was popular but not without some hiccups.
“There was a lot of excitement but it was stressful too. Everyone wanted to get a ticket and there was a queue that went right out of the door and down the road.
“So many had to rejoin the back of the queue because they had circled their numbers or crossed them out and the terminal didn’t recognise the slips.”
Raj is proud of his role in the money being raised every week for Good Causes. “Whenever I hear that over £30 million is raised every week for Good Causes, it makes me happy that by selling tickets and Scratchcards in my store, I’m helping in some way,” he says. “It now forms a central part of my business. Without it, our sales wouldn’t be where they are, footfall wouldn’t be the same. Having The National Lottery in my store really helps drive impulse sales so I’m delighted to have been able to offer the service for the past 30 years.”
A vital part of his community, Raj and his staff regularly go above and beyond - hand-delivering essentials and newspapers to a local care home three days a week, donating hampers to local club/charity raffles and raising money in store for Great Ormond St Hospital throughout the year. He’s also seen a few winners over the years.
“A lady that used to come to our store regularly would buy one Scratchcard whenever she visited. Then after a little while of not seeing her, I found out that she had won £10,000! The win enabled her to move away back to where her family were based so I was really happy that selling a winning Scratchcard helped change her life in a way.”
Located in the seaside town of Ballycastle in Northern Ireland, the McLister Store has been a firm fixture of the area for over 100 years and is still at the very centre of the local community.
The store, owned by Brian McLister, is described as a “pillar of his local community”, providing home deliveries for those who can’t get to the store, such as the elderly and families with young children, and sponsoring local clubs.
The McLister Store was also the first shop to get a National Lottery terminal in the area, and in the 30 years of offering the service has raised more than £650,000 for Good Causes.
Brian said: “Other stores were envious when they heard the news. I certainly felt very privileged to be the chosen one in our town. Everyone was talking about it and wanted to make sure they got their ticket. There were long queues from morning until night. They didn’t want to miss out, but nobody knew what they were doing or how to fill out their play slip! It was more difficult back then, the EPOS systems weren’t set up like they are now so it was tricky.
“The National Lottery has been amazing for our business, it’s really given it a boost from the start and has continued to do so over the years. It’s been instrumental for us and we wouldn’t be without it.”
He explains how it feels to have helped raise so much for National Lottery Good Causes over the 30 years they’ve been selling National Lottery products.
“I feel proud that we’ve been able to make a difference. We’ve always strived to serve our local community and to help wherever we can. It’s great to be able to see the benefit of National Lottery funding in your area. Our local museum has been completely regenerated thanks to the funding they’ve received. It feels good to know that we’ve helped in some way.”
To help celebrate 30 years of The National Lottery, it has launched the £2 ‘£300,000 Birthday’ Scratchcard – which offers seven top prizes £300,000. There are also special draws lined up including the EuroMillions 100 European Millionaire Maker draw on Saturday 22 November, which will see 100 prizes of £1 million guaranteed to be won in a single night.
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