UK Postcode Lottery

The People's Postcode Lottery (sometimes referred to as the UK Postcode Lottery) is a lottery in the United Kingdom, launched in the north east of England on 31 August 2005. The lottery has since expanded across Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. It follows the example of Dutch and Scandinavian systems that preceded it.

The lottery is in aid of charity, and works by using an entrant's postcode plus a unique three-digit number as their ticket number. For example; NE1 1AB 001. The lottery is run by Postcode Lottery Ltd, originally on behalf of The GoodFund.

A draw of a single ticket originally took place every Wednesday, using a computer similar to the Tote. Now five Street Prize draws take place per month, each occurring on a Thursday. There is a prize pot of over £35,000 with each Street Prize draw. All tickets playing in the winning postcode share £30,000 while those in the postcode sector share a £5,000 Sector Prize. There are also 500 further winning postcodes in each Street Prize draw. In addition to these weekly Street Prize draws, the lottery also launched a Daily Draw in 2011 in which each day, tickets in a single chosen postcode share £1,000.

During the initial launch phase only one draw took place per month, with weekly draws being around Christmas 2005.

The tickets are purchased by subscription and each costs £10 a month. Money is collected for the tickets every month by Direct Debit or by Credit Card. This has the advantage of ensuring the jackpot for each draw is known well in advance and the money for the charities is kept consistent. It also allows for prize money to be credited into a ticket holders bank account within 28 days, as each ticket is linked to a specific bank account. The Postcode Lottery actively promotes this form of payment, as it means that players do not have to travel to collect a ticket each week, or forget to buy their ticket; in reality this actually has the main effect of cutting costs down to allow more money to be paid to charity.

The Postcode Lottery supports local charities across Scotland, England and Wales, including Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, Missing People and several Wildlife Trusts.