THE National Lottery has seen a shock fall in sales, prize money and profits. Following record sales of €840.1m in 2008, takings fell back to €815.1m in 2009.

Cash-strapped punters stopped buying Lotto tickets to the tune of €40m last year, prompting a 11.4 per cent drop in sales of Lotto games.

Despite the fall in profits, chief executive Dermot Griffin's annual salary remained unchanged at €230,000 although he waived his performance bonus.

Staff numbers actually rose during 2009, from 92 to 99 people -- mostly in administration. Payroll costs rose by more than €300,000 to €7.8m.

Scratch card revenue declined by €7m, down from €170.1m to €163.7m. A lucky Dubliner won €29m, Ireland's second biggest EuroMillions prize ever, but EuroMillions game sales were down €2m.

The All Or Nothing daily game proved a winner, making €3.4m in less than three months after launching last October. Tellybingo sales grew slightly, up 2.5 per cent to €14.3m.

There are plans for more online products since they first launched last year. So far online revenues of €744,000 were generated from 6,000 players.

Winners got €438m in prizes in 2009.

Source: www.independent.ie

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