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 (Ireland) its inception until 27 February 2014, the National Lottery was operated under licence by the An Post National Lottery Company (), which was 80 percent owned by Ireland's state-owned postal services provider An Post and 20 percent by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. In 2011, in response to Ireland's financial crisis, the government included the National Lottery licence on a list of state assets that could be sold to assist the public finances. In April 2012, the government announced that it would sell the National Lottery licence for a period of 20 years for an upfront payment, while