Alistair Houghton meets DIANNE THOMPSON, chief executive of National Lottery operator Camelot

YOU need luck to win the National Lottery – and, says Camelot chief executive Dianne Thompson, you need a bit of luck to run it.

Ms Thompson was in Liverpool last week as part of her “10th birthday” tour. To mark her decade in charge of lottery operator Camelot, she is visiting Lottery-funded projects across the UK.

Her North West tour took her to the Florence Institute, in Liverpool, a Dingle landmark being restored after lying empty for a decade. The £6.4m restoration project, which received £3.7m in Lottery funding, will see the Grade II-listed Victorian boys’ club transformed into a social hub.

Camelot runs the Lottery, thus generating the money for good causes.

But Camelot doesn’t hand it out. That work is instead done by distributing bodies, including the Heritage Lottery Fund.

And so the dynamic Ms Thompson was visibly pleased to have the chance to get out of London and see what Lottery cash is doing.

Ms Thompson said:”It’s great to see it making a difference.”

The Lottery has continued to thrive, despite the downturn. Camelot has just enjoyed a record year, with ticket sales reaching £5.8bn. That means the amount of money delivered to good causes rose to £1.7bn – up 7.5% on the previous year – while £2.9bn was returned to players in prize money.

Ms Thompson said: “Last year was the best ever in the history of the National Lottery. That’s at a time when some other lotteries in the world are seeing a decline.

“We’ve worked really hard bringing new players to the game, better marketing, more retail distribution.

“And we’ve been lucky. There’s got to be an element of luck. If you have big rollovers and pay-outs, that helps as well.”

Merseyside, said Ms Thompson, has received more than £520m since the Lottery was founded.

“Some of those are big investment programmes, but so many grants are small scale,” she said.

“That’s why we’ve done posters, and we’re putting adverts in the Post & Echo. It’s a chance for us to tell people where the money has gone. It’s not our responsibility, but we feel we ought to let people know.

“Massive projects such as the World Museum have got millions. But half the grants made are for £10,000 or less.

“While the World Museum and Museum of Liverpool are fantastic projects and everyone enjoys them, a project on a school allotment for me is really bringing it down to the grass- roots level. They’re as exciting as everything else.”

Ms Thompson also visited Camelot’s administration centre, in Knowsley, where it employs 35 people.

The National Lottery, says Ms Thompson, is performing well despite the downturn, not because of it: “It’s not people trying to buy their way out of trouble, which people sometimes think,” she said.

“It’s not counter-cyclical. We think our sales could probably be up by £1.5m a week if we were in better economic times than we are.

“The thing that makes the UK relatively recession-proof compared to many other lotteries is that we’ve got millions of people playing, but spending relatively small amounts of money.

“Some 73% of the adult population play. The average spend is something like £3 to £3.50 per week.

“A lot of other lotteries have far fewer players, but they’re spending a lot more. In the States, some lotteries have 40% of their adult population playing but spending $20 or $30. That’s a lot of money when times are hard.”

The lottery, she says, is enjoyed by all socio-economic groups – and it has some unexpected fans.

When big EuroMillions jackpots are available, she says, the number of tickets sold in the City of London and Canary Wharf increase dramatically.

“The jackpot has to be at least £80m before the boys come out to play,” she said. “Once it gets to that level, then the profile of our players shifts. It tends to be bankers and City boys.”

Recent big winners included Colin and Chris Weir, from Ayrshire, who scooped £161m in the EuroMillions draw in June. And, just last month, David and Angela Dawes, of Cambridgeshire, won £101m.

Ms Thompson’s signature appears on the giant cheques with which the winners pose.

“It’s a joy to us when their attitude towards their win is really positive,” she said.

“Angela and David were really positive. They want to make 20 of their friends and family millionaires in their own right. They want to do stuff for their children. They’ll have fun and enjoy it.

“We have created 2,700 millionaires directly. But we believe more than 10,000 have been created through Lottery money, as people have given money to their friends and family.

“I’m always interested in looking at the annual Rich List. We’ve got more and more in there each year.”

In recent weeks, the National Lottery has seen the launch of a new national competitor – the Health Lottery, launched by Daily Express owner Richard Desmond.

Asked about the Health Lottery, Ms Thompson said: “There are lots of society lotteries out there – about 2,000 of them. Those individually are no threat to us, and they do a great job.

“The gambling market is very competitive in the UK, probably the most competitive in Europe. We’re not unused to competition, or scared by it.

“It’s a totally different situation with the Health Lottery because the Society Lottery law was never meant to allow a rival to the National Lottery in the marketplace. We’ve written to the Gambling Commission to ask their opinion on it.”

Camelot, meanwhile, is bidding for a five-year extension to its Lottery licence, which Ms Thompson says will allow it to invest for growth.

She said: “We’ve submitted a proposal to the regulator, the National Lottery Commission, to put a further 8,000 terminals out, which would be paid for by Camelot if we get the five-year extension. We hope to hear something on that before Christmas.

“We’ve also got plans for new games.

“It’s like any other consumer product. To keep moving forward, you’ve got to keep innovating, and keep finding new ways to make things interesting for our players.

“We’re looking at doing something with mobile phones. We cannot stand still in this business.”

After a decade at the helm of Camelot, and two licence renegotiations, Ms Thompson says she is loving her job as much as ever.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” she smiled. “Things are changing all the time.

“I can honestly say I’m always under pressure because we’ve always got new projects going on – new games, new initiatives. It’s great.

“We go to work to make Britain a better place. That’s a really good reason to get up on a cold, wet Monday morning.”