£3.9bn lottery boom

BRITONS have spent £3.9bn on lotto tickets as National Lottery operator Camelot revealed its best-ever sales – driven by the £170m Euromillions prize won by a UK player last month.

Ticket sales and returns to good causes have risen, according to half-yearly results for the National Lottery.

In the first six months of the 2019-20 financial year – between April 1 and September 29 – ticket sales rose by 13.5pc to £3.9bn and returns to good causes increased by 10.5pc to £876.8m, £83.6m more than the same period last year.