The Health Lottery is not part of the National Lottery. It is 51 local society lotteries each of which represents one or more local authority areas across the length and breadth of Great Britain. Each individual society lottery is licensed by the Gambling Commission raises money for health related good causes within their respective areas. The local society lotteries take it in turns to participate in the draw so that all the areas across England, Scotland and Wales get an appropriate share of the monies raised. Details of when each society lottery is running can be found here along with a map of each of all of the society lotteries.
Good Causes
Your money does make a difference. Of every £1 played on The Health Lottery 20p goes directly to local health-related good causes across Great Britain. This compares with the 28p in every £1 that goes to good causes from the National Lottery.
The money raised from the Health Lottery will not go towards services that are already covered by existing NHS funds. Instead, through the local society lotteries’ partner charity, the Peoples Health Trust, the monies raised will be distributed across all areas of Great Britain to health related good causes that are the most important to local communities within each of those areas. This enables every single part of Great Britain gets a share of the pot.
The Health Lottery is run by the Northern & Shell media company which owns Express newspapers, Channel 5 and OK! magazine. Northern & Shell was founded back in 1974 and over the next 25 years developed a broad portfolio of magazines and broadcast interests. They became better known after their take over of Express Newspapers in November 2000 and again 10 years later when they acquired Channel 5.
How to Play the Health Lottery
You can take part in The Health Lottery as long as you are aged 16 or over and a resident of Great Britain. Tickets can be purchased from both offline retailers or online, with the latter option being the safest as by playing online, there is no risk that you will lose a ticket or forget to claim your winnings. To play you will need to select 5 main numbers from the range 1 to 50, or use Quick Pick option (their version of lucky-dip) which will generate a random selection of numbers for you. You can also select to enter the same numbers for up to eight consecutive draws in advance if you wish to do so.
In order to win a prize, you will need to match three or more of your numbers. All the prize levels have fixed values, as follows:
Match 3 numbers to win £50
Match 4 numbers to win £500
Match 5 numbers to win £100,000
The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 : 214
Unlike the National Lottery, with the Health Lottery you know exactly the amount you could win each draw never changes. the downside is that there are no rollovers. The upside is that the top prize is never shared, even if more than one person wins it. Match all five of your selections and no matter how many other players do the same, you are guaranteed to win £100,000.
Claiming A Health Lottery Prize
If you play the Health Lottery offline and win a prize of £50, you can claim your prize directly from a Health Lottery retailer, but if you are lucky enough to win a £500 or £100,000 prize, you will have to call the Health Lottery helpline number. You will find the number printed on the reverse of your ticket. For those playing online and win £50 or £500 will have their prize credited to their account automatically, leaving you to only have to make a formal claim for the top prize of £100,000.
