Though today we are quite used to buying UK lottery tickets; in fact, the origins of these tickets goes back to the time when people in England played games of chance and to raffles. The first mention of buying of lottery tickets in England was made in the middle of the sixteenth century and it took another three years for the actual lottery draw to be affected. Those were the days when lotteries were held just to raise some money to do something good for the public.

Buying those first few UK lottery tickets meant that you had a chance of winning prizes that were not large and in any case the biggest prize could never exceed the sum of money raised through selling of the tickets. Mostly, the prizes offered included a plate made from silver and some other valuables.

For those who had a ticket that matched the drawn numbers the prize they got was a loan that would be given to them without any interest being charged. However, this practice changed once the government decided to allow brokers and agents do the selling and it is these brokers that were to become big stockholders in different ventures.

Whats more, the early days of the UK lottery saw ticket prices being more than what an average player could afford. This resulted in the agents selling part of the ticket to different players who would then have a share in the ticket. In addition, many private lotteries were also being played and these actually even helped to raise money to help immigrants from England settle down in Jamestown, USA.

The early English State lotteries were run from the years 1694 through 1826 which spanned a period of about two hundred and fifty years. Till the year 1996, the biggest prize for UK lotteries was forty two million pounds that was won by three different ticket holders.

However, till date many bigger prizes have been won which is what makes the UK lottery so attractive.