National Lottery (United Kingdom) National Lottery is franchised to a private operator; the Camelot Group was awarded the franchise on 25 May 1994. The first draw took place on 19 November 1994 with a television programme presented by Noel Edmonds. The first numbers drawn were 30, 3, 5, 44, 14 and 22, the bonus was 10, and seven jackpot winners shared a prize of £5,874,778. Tickets became available on the Isle of Man on 2 December 1999 at the request of Tynwald. A second lottery draw, Thunderball, was introduced by Camelot on 12 June 1999. The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in
National Lottery (United Kingdom) October 2002, designed to combat falling sales. The main game was renamed "Lotto", and the National Lottery Extra became "Lotto Extra", though Camelot would later retire Lotto Extra on 8 July 2006 due to low sales. The stylised crossed-fingers logo was modified. However, the games as a collective are still known as "the National Lottery". It is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the United Kingdom. Originally, the draw machines for Lotto and Lotto Extra were the Criterion model, manufactured by Smartplay International Inc., but on the 25th October 2003, Camelot replaced them with Smartplay's Magnum I