The best year of UK National Lotto ticket sales has just been reported by Camelot the organisers of the UK lottery. No mean feat for a company based in a country experiencing a deep recession.

From 31 March 2008 to 31 March 2009 ticket sales grew to £5 Billion which was £182,800,000 more than the preceding year. In total, ticket sales have risen by 12% over the last five years.

Apparently sales have been driven by people supporting the Olympic Games (to be held in London during 2012) by buying more lottery tickets and scratch cards to raise funds for the occasion.

There are still three more years to go but the Olympic target of £750 Million (GBP) is looking good with £400 Million (GBP) already raised and a further £750 Million contingency plan to possibly be made from diverting cash from other lottery benefactors.

Camelot, who have run the UK Lotto for three consecutive terms, stated that this considerable increase in sales was brought about by people now playing the lottery either from their mobile phones or on the Internet.

By playing the lottery in this way, customers save time by not having to queue for their tickets every week. But perhaps even more importantly, they eliminate the possibility of losing their tickets, and if playing via the Internet can even have the results emailed to them after each draw has taken place, making all their lottery entries risk free.

All in all, the future is looking good for the organisers, their customers, and the good causes supported by the UK National Lottery.

Lottery tickets make wonderful party favors. But you can’t exactly just hand out the tickets to your guests and say ‘here ya go – thanks for coming’! That wouldn’t exactly be a class act. But by putting them in attractive, personalized lottery ticket favor holders- now you have a classy gift.

You can actually make your own holders quite easily. Go to a stationary or craft store and choose envelopes in the color and size of your choice – but make sure they are smaller than the typical letter sized envelope (No. 10 size). If you are good with a printer – set up a template adjusted for the envelop size and print your own ‘thank you’ message on each envelope in a nice font. If it’s for a wedding, “Lucky in Love” followed by the couple’s name and wedding date is always popular. If you have nice handwriting, instead of printing you can write the message on each envelope.

By adding the words “Name” and “Table” and a line after each you can also use them as your place cards. That saves you time, money, and hassle!

If the above sounds like too much work – or you want ensure a professional, elegant look to the lottery ticket favor holders, you can purchase custom lottery favor holders. These give you a lot of flexibility: color of envelope, embellishments, etc. All you need to do is slip the lottery ticket into each holder!

Don’t gamble on your party favors; lottery ticket favors are always a winning choice.

Diva Entertains, Copyright 2009

Wouldn’t it suck if you won millions of dollars in a lottery jackpot, lose the ticket, and then have the prize money claimed by somebody else that found your ticket? Yes, of course it would. That’s why you should always sign your lottery ticket as soon as you purchase it from the retailer.

There are ways for lottery corporations to verify if you are the rightful owner of a ticket. The main one is via the signature on the ticket. There are others ways as well, including a claimant being able to tell the corporation where and when the ticket was purchased. But that is never as full-proof as the actual signature.

Winning a lotto jackpot is against all odds and, if you are lucky enough to have all of your numbers come up, you deserve the money. A lottery win is usually a once-in-a-lifetime event, so if you lose your ticket, you’ll most likely never get another win. So, be careful and sign your ticket.

Further, if you check the numbers and find out that, in fact, you are holding a winning lottery ticket, there are other steps that you should take. In addition to signing the ticket, you should also make several photo copies and keep them in separate safe places. That way, if you lose the original, you could still prove that you held the winning ticket. And, don’t forget to keep the original in a very safe place.

Winning the lottery would be a dream come true for most people, but there are steps to be taken to make sure that you actually get the money that you win. Signing your lottery tickets at point-of-purchase is the most important of all the steps.