There were €855.7m worth of tickets sold last year, according to the just-published annual report of the lottery regulator, a 3.2pc increase on the previous year. Online sales represented 18.1pc of the total, or €155.1m, an increase of over two percentage points over the year.
There are also slightly fewer active retail agents, the report says, down from 5,195 to 5,166 at the end of last December. They accounted for almost 82pc of sales.
The lottery draws still dominate, accounting for €540m in revenue last year, almost two-thirds of the total. This includes the twice-weekly National Lottery draws and Euromillions. The figure was down from €531.5m in 2023.
Instant games, such as scratch cards, amounted to €315.6m last year, an increase from €278m in 2023.
The regulator commissioned a “mystery shop” exercise last year, to check if the retail sector is obeying rules about not selling National Lottery tickets to under 18s. It was the first time this had been checked in six years.
Almost three-quarters of shops were found to be fully compliant, an improvement on the 2018 results. The proportion of retailers who challenged test purchases increased from 63pc to 71pc, and 92pc displayed ‘over 18’ signs, which was up from 73pc.
Nevertheless the regulator said the percentage of retailers not implementing the rules fully – 28pc – was “unacceptable”, and it has required the operator to take tougher actions to increase awareness and compliance.
Carol Boate, the regulator, said: “Our 2024 mystery shop is part of the process we have undertaken to identify where risks exist so we can tackle them. The results show that while great progress has been made since 2018, there is still room for improvement in terms of age challenge and sale refusal to under 18s.
“While it is welcome that more retailers have 18+ signage in store and more staff are challenging test purchasers than in 2018, it is concerning that nearly three in 10 shops visited were still prepared to sell products to minors. We will work with Premier Lotteries Ireland and retailers to build on the progress made to date and adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards the sale of age-restricted products to children.”
Premier Lotteries Ireland holds the exclusive rights to operate the Irish National Lottery until 2034. It was bought by the French lottery operator La Française des Jeux (FDJ) in 2023.
Returns generated for ‘good causes’ last year amounted to €239.3m, or 28pc of sales revenue. Some €487.6m was won in prizes, 57pc of the sales proceeds, a higher proportion than in 2023. This resulted in a slight reduction in the proportion earned for charities.
Included in the sum sent to good causes last year was €23,000, which was withheld from the operator due to a glitch in the Check my Numbers facility that happened in 2022. Some customers got a “ticket not a winner” message when in fact they had won.
The technical problem may have led to as many as 394 prizes going unclaimed, with a value up to €2,299, although the regulator says there was actually “no noticeable increase in the rate of unclaimed prizes during this period”.
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