National Lottery (Ireland)
The National Lottery is the state-licensed lottery of Ireland. Established in 1986 to raise funds for good causes, it began operations on 23 March 1987 when it sold its first scratchcards. It launched the weekly drawing game Lotto the following year, holding the first draw on 16 April 1988. It now offers EuroDreams draws on Mondays and Thursdays, EuroMillions and Plus draws on Tuesdays and Fridays, Lotto and Lotto Plus draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and two Daily Million draws each day. Its other games include televised bingo, an annual Millionaire Raffle, and online instant-win games. The minimum age to play all National Lottery games is 18.
Almost 40 percent of Irish adults play National Lottery games regularly, with 84 percent of sales transacted through a nationwide network of almost 5,200 retailers and the remainder made online through the National Lottery's website or mobile app. Approximately 27 percent of sales go to fund designated good causes in the areas of sport and recreation, national culture, the arts, community health, and the natural environment. The National Lottery has raised over €6.5 billion for good causes since its inception. In 2023, total National Lottery sales were €829 million with almost €479 million returned in prizes and almost €229 million distributed to good causes. The largest Lotto jackpot of €19,060,800 was won on 15 January 2022; the largest Euromillions jackpot won in Ireland is €250,000,000, won on 17 June 2025.
From 1986 to 2014, the state-owned An Post National Lottery Company operated the National Lottery. To raise funds during Ireland's post-2008 economic downturn, the Irish government sold the National Lottery licence for 20 years to a private operator, Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC, which was initially majority-owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, with a minority stake held by An Post and An Post Pension Funds. PLI began operating the National Lottery in November 2014. The French lottery operator Française des Jeux acquired PLI in November 2023. The Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation appoints an independent regulator to oversee the National Lottery's operations.
History and administration
In its 1984 economic plan, Building on Reality 1985–1987, the coalition government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party proposed to raise funds for sports by creating a new National Lottery. It passed the , which stipulated that National Lottery proceeds would fund sport and recreation, national culture, the arts, and community health. The government held a public tender process for the licence to operate the lottery. After its operators failed to win the National Lottery licence, the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake, which had been established in 1930 to finance hospitals, entered voluntary liquidation in March 1987.The government awarded the National Lottery licence to An Post National Lottery Company, which was 80 percent owned by Ireland's state-owned postal services provider An Post and 20 percent owned by the Minister for Finance. The National Lottery licence was initially issued for a ten-year period, but in 1992 the licence term was extended to 31 March 2000 and was subsequently extended for an additional year. An Post National Lottery Company successfully retained the licence in 2001 as the only bidder in the public tender process, after two other applications were withdrawn. Ray Bates served as director of An Post National Lottery Company from its inception until he stood down in 2006. The company's former chief operating officer, Dermot Griffin, succeeded Bates as director.
In 2011, during the country's post-2008 economic downturn, the Irish government included the National Lottery licence in a €3 billion privatisation drive agreed under the country's Economic Adjustment Programme. In April 2012, the government announced that it would sell a 20-year licence to operate the National Lottery, while ensuring that around 30 percent of lottery sales would still go to designated good causes. The provided for the sale of the licence, eliminated some restrictions on Internet gambling to encourage online sales, and added the natural environment to the list of good causes eligible to receive National Lottery funding.
On 3 October 2013, the government announced the winning bid of €405 million from Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC, majority-owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, with a minority stake held by An Post and An Post Pension Funds. The Italian-owned GTECH and Australian gambling operator Tatts Group had also submitted bids for the licence. The government stated that half the proceeds from the sale would go towards construction of a new children's hospital while the other half would be used to pay down state debt and fund jobs programmes. The staff of An Post National Lottery Company were transferred to PLI, which began operating the National Lottery in November 2014. Griffin became CEO of PLI and continued in that role until 2019, when he was succeeded by former Paddy Power executive Andrew Algeo.
In March 2023, it was reported that the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan was planning to sell its 78.6 percent stake in PLI. In July 2023, it was announced that the French lottery operator Française des Jeux, in its first lottery venture outside France, had agreed to acquire PLI in full for €350 million. Due to a drag-along right, An Post and An Post Pension Funds were obliged to sell their minority 21.4 percent stake, meaning that, for the first time, the Irish state retained no ownership stake in the company running the National Lottery. The acquisition was completed in November 2023. The Irish state continues to own and regulate the National Lottery, which PLI will operate until its 20-year licence expires in November 2034.
Following the acquisition, the National Lottery announced plans to move its headquarters away from Dublin's Abbey Street, where it had been based since its inception. In the summer of 2024, the headquarters moved to 1 George's Quay, the former headquarters of Ulster Bank, which had recently ceased operating in the Republic of Ireland. In June 2024, Algeo stepped down as CEO and board member of PLI and was succeeded by Cian Murphy, formerly PLI's chief product and digital officer, who had previously held roles with The AA, Paddy Power, and McKinsey & Company. The National Lottery had 207 employees in 2023 and staff costs of €18.7 million.
Regulator of the National Lottery
The National Lottery Act 2013 established the office of the Regulator of the National Lottery, appointed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The regulator may serve a term not exceeding seven years and may be reappointed for one additional term. The first regulator appointed to the office was Liam Sloyan, a former chief executive of the Health Insurance Authority, who took up the position on 17 November 2014. He was succeeded by Carol Boate, a former director of corporate services in the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, whose appointment took effect on 9 October 2017.Administrative and regulatory issues
The answer to a 2025 Dáil question listed ten sanctions imposed by the lottery regulator on PLI since 2015.In 2015, representatives of PLI appeared before the Oireachtas Finance Committee to explain technological faults affecting the running of the National Lottery. One problem had delayed the midweek Lotto draw scheduled for 4 February 2015 until the following day, the first time a Lotto draw had been postponed.
In 2020, following an investigation, the National Lottery regulator found that PLI had breached three provisions of the National Lottery Act 2013, as well as its licence with the Irish state, by omitting top prizes totaling €180,000 from three scratchcard games, one held in 2015 and two held in 2019. The investigation found that the omissions were due to human error. PLI returned the prizes to consumers through a New Year's Special Draw and also made a €50,000 donation to a mental health charity.
In 2022, the Public Accounts Committee questioned PLI CEO Andrew Algeo regarding the company's use of unclaimed winnings between 2015 and 2021, an amount totaling over €124 million. PLI was criticized for allocating €120 million of this sum to marketing expenses while allocating less than €2 million towards top-up prizes. Algeo defended the marketing expenditure as necessary promotion for the lottery and stated that PLI had remained compliant with the licence terms. The committee also questioned lottery regulator Carol Boate over PLI's use of unclaimed winnings. Some members called Boate a "bystander" on the issue while Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill criticised her for not seeking external legal advice.
Also in 2022, the regulator fined PLI €150,000 for breach of licence after it failed to bar some problem gamblers from online platforms, even though those users had elected to avail of a permanent self-exclusion option introduced in 2019. An investigation by the regulator identified 126 self-excluded users whose accounts had been deleted in error in October 2021, rather than permanently closed. Of these, 16 had subsequently opened new online accounts and 10 had resumed gambling on the platform. It was the first time PLI had been financially penalised due to problems identified by the regulator.
In 2024 the regulator withheld €23,000 from PLI for 394 prizes unclaimed over a six-week period in 2022 when the website's "Check My Numbers" facility mistakenly told some users their numbers had not won.
Games
The National Lottery began gaming operations on 23 March 1987 when it launched its first scratchcards, selling an estimated 1 million on the first day of trading. It now offers EuroDreams draws on Mondays and Thursdays, Lotto and Lotto Plus draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays, EuroMillions and Plus draws on Tuesdays and Fridays, and two Daily Million draws each day. It also runs a range of other games, including televised bingo, Millionaire Raffles, and online instant-win games.Since the National Lottery's inception, tickets and scratchcards have been sold through a countrywide network of retailers. In 2009, the National Lottery introduced online sales for lottery tickets; it also now offers online instant-win games. In 2023, around 84 percent of sales were transacted through the 5,195-member retail network and almost 16 percent were made online.
National Lottery prizes are paid out as tax-free lump sums, with the top two EuroDreams prizes paid as tax-free annuities. All prizes in Lotto, EuroMillions, EuroDreams, and Daily Million games must be claimed within 90 days of the applicable drawing dates. The minimum age for playing all National Lottery games is 18, and winners have the right to remain anonymous. All unclaimed prizes are retained by the National Lottery and are mostly used for marketing expenses.