A fall in ticket sales has led to a decrease in National Lottery funds for good causes

The amount of money donated to good causes by the National Lottery has dropped.

However £746.6 million was put towards making a difference between April and September this year.

The figure represents a drop of 4.7% compared to the corresponding period last year, and has been attributed to ticket sales dropping to £3,280 million.

Operators Camelot have said that 95% of its revenues are given to winners or good causes, and is planning on changing some of the games it offers in a bid to address falling ticket sales.

Chief executive Nigel Railton said: “A fall in sales is never welcome but, as we announced in June, we did anticipate a further sales decline this year – so our performance over the half-year is in line with expectations. Despite the challenges we’ve faced, we succeeded in returning almost £2.6 billion to good causes and players in just six months – underlining the massive difference that The National Lottery continues to make to the lives of people and communities throughout the UK.”

The National Lottery has said it has delivered more than £37bn for good causes, enabling 525,000 individual awards to be made across the UK – the equivalent of around 185 projects in every community.