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Health Lottery History
The Health Lottery has been giving away great prizes, and raising money for health-related causes since September 2011. It is now drawn five times a week. Get all the information about game changes, jackpot records and promotional offers that have occurred during the game's history.
Health Lottery Timeline
29th Sep 2011
Tickets for the Health Lottery go on sale for the first time. Draws are scheduled to take place every Saturday and are broadcast on ITV.
8th Oct 2011
The first Health Lottery draw took place.
7th Nov 2011
The Magic Monday promotion began, with players able to use their tickets to receive free gifts or discounts at high street retailers.
Results broadcasts are also switched to Channel 5.
10th Dec 2011
There was no winner in the main draw, so the Second Chance Guaranteed Winner element came into play for the first time, awarding the player whose ticket reference number was drawn out with the jackpot instead.
21st Jan 2012
A player who bought their ticket in Bishop Auckland, County Durham won the biggest ever Health Lottery jackpot of £250,000.
21st Jul 2012
- Hot Ticket began, creating at least one £100,000 winner per week, in addition to offering other prizes like holidays, shopping vouchers and new cars. All players were entered through the code displayed on their tickets for the Saturday draw.
- The prize for matching three numbers fell from £50 to £20, with the reward for matching four numbers dropping to £250 from £500.
13th Oct 2012
The first ever Hot Ticket promotion ends.
17th Oct 2012
To celebrate a successful first year, a second weekly draw was introduced with the name Win Wednesday.
11th May 2013
- The first draw featuring the new Bonus Ball took place.
- Three more prize tiers were introduced, visit the Prizes & Odds page for details on all of the current ways to win.
30th Jul2013
Instant win games are launched offering players more opportunities to win online.
8th Mar2014
The Hot Ticket raffle returns, offering up to £50,000 in extra cash prizes in every draw until the end of the month.
19th Jan2015
The 50p Quick Pick game was launched, offering a jackpot of £25,000 on Tuesday and Friday, in addition to the main Health Lottery game.
13th Aug 2015
A third weekly £1 draw was added on a Thursday night.
28th Oct 2015
The 50p Quick Pick game is discontinued and £1 draw games are introduced on Tuesday and Friday evenings, bringing the weekly number of Health Lottery draws to five.
3rd Jun 2017
The Health Lottery results are broadcast live on Channel 5 for the final time.
15th Nov 2017
Quick Win launches offering players the chance to win every 3 minutes.
3rd Feb 2018
A Hot Ticket promotion begins. Bonus prizes are on offer to the lucky player who matches the winning raffle code in each Saturday draw until the end of the month.
29th Jul 2018
Two exciting changes were introduced to improve the overall odds of winning from 1 in 108 to 1 in 9.7:
- New prize tiers were added - free tickets are now awarded to players who Match 2 numbers, or 1 number and the Bonus Ball.
- A Monthly Mega Raffle was introduced offering great prizes up to £250,000.
4th Jan 2020
A new £100,000 draw was launched on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Anyone with a ticket for the main draw is entered automatically. You have to match all five numbers in the extra draw to win £100,000.
1st Mar 2020
The final Monthly Mega Raffle took place. Tickets for all draws after 29th February no longer included a raffle code.
13th July 2020
The Health Lottery increased the amount of money it distributed to health-related good causes, citing the difficulties faced by the charity sector in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis as the main reason behind the decision. The amount of revenue allocated to charitable projects increased from 20.34% to 25.5%.
3rd June 2023
The Saturday second chance draw jackpot is upgraded from £100,000 to £250,000
15th August 2023
The Health Lottery changed the name of their main draw game to The Big Win. They also upgraded the prize for the Saturday free draw from £100,000 to £475,000 and changed the lower tiers prize amounts.