Our history

The 70s

The Channel Islands Lottery was founded in 1975 with the merger of the Jersey Lottery and the Guernsey Lottery. The Jersey Lottery was established in 1966 and the Guernsey Lottery in 1971. The game is the oldest lottery in the British Isles, beating Ireland (1987) and the United Kingdom (1994).

Jersey’s share of the profits from the lottery was initially used to finance the transformation of Fort Regent into a sports and entertainment complex. On the completion of that project, the States of Jersey agreed that the Jersey part of the profits from the Channel Islands Lottery should be applied to charitable purposes, through the Association of Jersey Charities. Likewise, Guernsey utilised lottery revenues to build Beau Sejour Leisure Centre and now distributes profits towards charity and good causes within the Bailiwick.

The 80s

During the 80s the Lottery had its own supercomputer to carry out the monthly draw based game. This hugely popular character, Super Fred, retired in the early 90s.

The 90s

The lottery evolved from a traditional draw based paper game with draws held every two weeks. Thousands of winning numbers were drawn electronically by ‘Super Fred’. The top prize by the 90s was £40,000 and during bumper draws such as Christmas, reached £190,000.

This game evolved to a more complex structure after Fred’s retirement comprising a two-part ticket, which on the top portion awarded instant prizes concealed behind a silver latex panel containing six prize values. The player had to match three identical values to win that amount. Approximately 281 prizes, totalling £550, were spread over every 2000 tickets and were valued at between £1 and £50.

A scratch card instant game was introduced to revitalise the traditional draw in 1997 and has grown in popularity since.

The 00s

By 2011, Scientific Games International took responsibility of game production and their approach to instant games making them fun with lots of winners really took off. All proceeds from the Channel Island Lottery continue to be transferred to charity and good causes and over the years have helped fund events such as Liberation Day celebrations, Island Games events and the Jersey Battle of Flowers.

Our mission and responsibilities

As operator, the CI Joint Lottery Office works hard to ensure that the lottery continues to be a positive experience for participants providing the best return to the local charity sector and notable good causes.

We want to create lots of winners every month and deliver around £3million every year that goes towards supporting good causes across the Channel Islands.

We wouldn’t be able to achieve this without our players, which makes it all the more important that they have a positive experience – with lots of Channel Islanders playing, but individually spending amounts proportioned to their levels of income.

Gambling legislation in the Channel Islands

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