The Health Lottery assets of the NHS Lottery were purchased in 2007 by Altala Group Ltd, a company run by Ian Milligan, a former employee of Camelot Group, the operators of the UK National Lottery. Altala went into administration in 2009, shortly before it was due to be granted its gambling licence, and was purchased by Health Lottery Ltd. After winning the licence, the Health Lottery was sold in February 2011 to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell group. The Health Lottery launched in September 2011. Until the summer of 2018, The Health Lottery had operated 51 society lotteries across Great Britain. This structure
National Lottery (United Kingdom) unless specifically authorised by statute. Early English state lotteries included the Million Lottery (1694) and the Malt Lottery (1697). These Lotteries were part of a series of financial experiments by the English government including recoinage and the foundation of the Bank of England to raise the capital available to the state. A 1934 Act, further liberalised in 1956 and 1976, legalised small lotteries. A National Health Service Lottery was piloted in 1988 but cancelled for legal reasons before the first draw. The UK's state-franchised lottery was set up under government licence by the government of John Major in 1993. The