Camelot aiming for lottery sales boost with text service

Camelot, the National Lottery operator, unveiled plans yesterday to allow people to play the main prize draws by text message in an attemptto drive up sales.

Camelot, the National Lottery operator, unveiled plans yesterday to allow people to play the main prize draws by text message in an attemptto drive up sales.

Announcing the initiative, which it hopes will make the lottery easier to play, Camelot said the turnaround in ticket sales - which had been flagging in recent years - was continuing to gather momentum.

Ticket sales grew by more than £100m in the first six months of the year, an increase of 4.7 per cent. This builds on news from Camelot in April, when it said ticket sales had grown for the first time in six years. Sales were up £40m over the whole 2003/04 financial year.

Since then, Camelot has launched the National Lottery on the internet and on Sky's interactive platform. Sales through these channels were £34m over the six months to the end of September, with more than 600,000 registered players using the online and digital television services. With growing ticket sales, the amount passed on to good causes rose 8.5 per cent, to £629m.

Camelot has introduced a number of new lottery draws and scratchcard games to attract more customers. It said yesterday that scratchcard sales were now at a six-year high, while weekly sales were more than £13m - up 13 per cent year on year. Sales of all non-Lotto games were up 14 per cent.

The move into the mobile sector is part of a drive to make the lottery more accessible. As on the internet and on Sky, people wanting to play it using their mobiles must pre-register their details and debit card information with the National Lottery and then transfer funds from their bank account to create a Lottery account.

Camelot then uses a security system to make sure they are over 16. Then, by sending a text to a single number, lottery users can choose to play EuroMillions, the main Lotto draw or Daily Play. They can select the line of numbers they want, choose a random "lucky dip" selection of numbers or choose the same numbers they picked the last time they played. The cost of the entry and the 20p text will automatically be deducted from their account. Players will receive an alert if they have won.

Dianne Thompson, the chief executive of Camelot, dismissed fears that changes to the UK's gambling laws would affect the lottery. The Gambling Bill will open up Britain to Las Vegas-style casinos, with 1,250 slot machines paying out prizes of as much as £1m. The Bill is expected to be published by the end of this month and could be law by next spring. Ms Thompson said: "The lottery has always worked in an intensely competitive environment."

Weekly sales of lottery tickets are now more than £90m, compared with £40m when it launched in 1994, and the number of people winning prizes has also increased. The number of winning tickets rose 13 per cent in the six months to the end of September to 102 million. Camelot is also installing lottery terminals at Tesco check-outs.

Another new advertising campaign has just been launched, this time starring Fay Ripley, the Cold Feet actress, as a mythical Lady Luck character.