Health Lottery sales fall for 10th consecutive year

Sales of The Health Lottery have fallen for the 10th consecutive year – as it once again failed to turn a profit.

Turnover was down 3.4% to £4.2m for the year ending 31 December 2024 in the Health Lottery ELM accounts, published at Companies House.

Sales peaked in 2012 at £29.6m before dropping by 26.3% to £21.8m the following year. Turnover rose by 31.1% in 2014 to £28.6m, but has fallen every year since.

The Health Lottery, which is offered in 20,800 stores across the country, also posted a pre-tax loss of £19.8m in 2024, compared to a loss of £18.9m the previous year, while operating losses improved from £4.2m to £3.2m.

The Health Lottery, which is run by Richard Desmond’s British media and property company Northern & Shell, has not made a profit since its inception in 2011, with cumulative losses now totalling almost £300m.

A new CEO, Lebby Eyres, was appointed in January 2023, but it’s understood she left after just over a year in the post, according to LinkedIn.

The Health Lottery has been approached for comment.

Companies owned by Desmond, Northern & Shell and the New Lottery Company, are taking legal action against the Gambling Commission for its decision to grant Allwyn the licence to run the National Lottery. The trial will begin in October 2025.

The Gambling Commission named Allwyn as the preferred applicant for the fourth National Lottery licence in March 2022. The transition period was expected to take two years.

However, due to the nature of the relevant procurement regulations and the legal actions the Gambling Commission faced from unsuccessful bidders – Camelot and Camelot’s technology provider IGT – the Gambling Commission was only able to confirm Allwyn as the incoming licensee in September 2022 after the removal of Camelot’s claim for injunctive relief.

Then IGT, the third licence technology provider needed to enable the technology transition to the fourth licence, only dropped the legal claim against the Gambling Commission in January 2024.

This meant the technology cutover has needed to take place in parallel with running the day-to-day National Lottery, which has caused delays in Allwyn introducing the new technology and rolling out the new terminals.