Millionaire to be made in TV draw: National Lottery winners to be named in prime time

A millionaire will be created on prime-time television on 19 November when the first National Lottery draw takes place. But the winner will be allowed to remain anonymous.

Camelot, the consortium led by Cadbury Schweppes, which is administering the lottery for the Government, said yesterday that the pounds 1m winning numbers will be announced live on television every Saturday night. Tickets will be on sale at up to 10,000 retail outlets - high street stores, supermarkets, local newsagents and petrol stations, but not at the town-centre booths that are familiar on the Continent.

Camelot hopes to transmit the 19 November draw simultaneously on BBC1 and BBC radio, when about 250,000 people are expected to win prizes. To win the jackpot, contestants will have to select correctly six numbers from a possible 49. Viewers will see the draw being made from a machine like a spin drier, with numbered rubber balls bouncing about inside.

Camelot said that the odds of guessing the six numbers in the correct sequence were just under 14 million to 1 - and the chances of winning a prize of any kind, 1 in 54. This compares favourably with the 2.8 billion to 1 odds for winning the pounds 1m top prize on the Premium Bonds. Pools companies' odds are not published but believed to be hundreds of millions to one.

If the jackpot is not won it will be 'rolled over' three times before being distributed to other prize categories, a spokeswoman added. An instant game - probably featuring scratch cards - will be launched early next year.

The main National Lottery game starting in November will involve people buying lottery tickets, costing pounds 1 for a single game, at retailers near their home or work. All participating shops will have computer terminals linked to a central terminal at Camelot's head office. The terminals will print out a receipt for the player.

Anyone over 16 can participate. If, when the draw is made, the player has three numbers, he or she will win pounds 10; four numbers may win pounds 50 or pounds 60; and five numbers about pounds 1,500. Players with six numbers will win a share of the jackpot likely to be about pounds 2m each week.

From next spring, there will be a number of instant games, many of them short- term themed games (such as Christmas and Easter). Prizes for these will range from pounds 10 to pounds 10,000.

Yesterday, Camelot also unveiled the Saatchi and Saatchi-designed national lottery logo - a blue hand with fingers crossed for good luck and a smiling face imprinted on the hand, with the words 'The National Lottery' below in red.

Peter Davis, director general of the National Lottery, said: 'I believe it conveys the values of fun, friendliness, enjoyment and approachability that will characterise the National Lottery.'