National Lottery Commission It was not the NLC’s responsibility to distribute the good causes funds. There are 14 Lottery distributors who distribute the money to local communities and national projects. The National Lottery is operated by Camelot Group under a licence that was awarded to them by the Commission following a competition to select the operator. The competition for the third Lottery licence took place between January 2005 and August 2007. The Invitation to Apply (ITA) was the formal invitation to bid for the licence and was published on 29 June 2006. Bids were received from Camelot Group plc and Sugal & Damani
National Lottery (Ireland) changed Lotto to a 6/39 game later in 1992, raising the jackpot odds to 1 in 3,262,623. The first Lotto 6/39 drawing was held on 22 August 1992. To compensate for the longer jackpot odds, the National Lottery doubled the starting jackpot to and added a "bonus number" to the drawings. Whereas players previously needed either a match-6, match-5, or match-4 to win, prizes were now also awarded for match-5+bonus, match-4+bonus, and match-3+bonus. Lotto became a 6/42 game on 24 September 1994, which made the jackpot odds 1 in 5,245,786. The National Lottery made this change to generate bigger rollover