A TD has requested information on the finances of Premier Lotteries and said the Lotto "must have the support of the people".
Kildare North politician Deputy Bernard Durkan has tabled a parliamentary question seeking information on the value of ticket sales, the total prize money paid out and the amount spent on advertising over the course of 2021.
On Saturday, the historic €19.06 million jackpot was won in a must-win draw after being capped since October, ending a rollover streak of 63.
In November, Deputy Durkan infamously called for a probe into the "unwinnable jackpot", sparking a national debate about why six numbers hadn't been matched since June.
He told Dublin Live after Saturday's draw that we "have to wait and see how things develop over the next couple of months."
He said: "The issue that has prevailed for the last seven months has apparently been addressed, but I think we need to see how it works in the future.
"After all, for the first six months of the year in 2021, there was a reasonable mix of wins and no wins, which one can readily expect. But in the following six months, to the end of the year, there was a no win situation for the main prize and nobody won it.
"And whatever caused that apart from the game of chance that's regularly referred to as the reason for gaps like that, I think we have to wait and see how things develop over the next couple of months and see what happens."
He said that a new system seeing more people split the jackpot should be considered in the future.
"However, a number of people have mentioned that they would prefer to see instead of one person getting 19 million as it happened in this particular case, they would prefer to see maybe 20 people or 40 people getting a million or half a million.
"I think there's an area there that we can look at in the future because this Lottery depends on the support of the people and people support it for the many good causes that it supports.
"The Lottery must have the support of the people and the goodwill of the people, on the basis that people will support it as long as they can understand how it operates and as long as they know that their money can be put to good use."
Deputy Durkan said he welcomes the new rule that a must-win draw will be held five draws after a jackpot is capped and said it was a resolution to what has happened over the last seven months.
However, he said "I'm not so certain that it's the ultimate answer."
The TD is expecting a response to his request to Premier Lotteries for details of their advertising spend and finances next week.
He said: "We asked when the Chief Executive and the Regulator appeared before the Finance Committee, we asked those questions, but the information wasn't available at the time, but I presume it'll be available for question time, the reply to written questions next week.
"And we'll be in a better position then to see and to conclude judgement as to whether or not what has happened is the ultimate answer to the problem that apparently had arisen."
He said that there was nothing to suggest that anything inappropriate had happened, but "the problem did arise in the sense that the general public became increasingly uneasy as to whether or not the Lottery was operating in the way in which it was intended.
"And it wasn't sufficient, just to say that 'look, this is a game of chance, you take your chances' and so on. This is a different type of game of chance. It's a game of chance where the people patriotically support (it), the benefits of which go to very, many good causes around the country.
"This is based on the goodwill of the people."
The Fine Gael politician said he did not expect the huge national response to his original call for a probe into the National Lottery last November.
"I did not. It was that someone had mentioned to me before, "where have all the winners gone?" and I was inclined to think well, it is a game of chance so you could miss two, three, four times and when I looked at it more closely it was obvious that in the first six months of the year, it was a reasonable operation and looked okay.
"But the next six, seven months, something happened in the sense that the game of chance didn't seem to recognise that the chance should have come the way of some of the punters at some stage.
"Two or three weeks gone by with no win, maybe so. But after that we have to start explaining why it wasn't operating in the way the people thought it should.
"I come back again to the people in all of this. This is a voluntary thing, the people donate voluntarily, and you could say yeah, it could be in their benefit and they might win. That's right, they could.
"But for seven months almost they didn't win."
Deputy Durkan revealed he did not purchase a ticket for Saturday's draw.
"I wouldn't be a great gambler now. Like everybody else, I support good causes to the best of my ability. I'd maybe go to the races once or twice a year, I'd maybe have a couple of bets but I would always operate on the basis that you could win, that's correct, but you could lose also.
"Winning is fun, losing is not so fun."
Dublin Live has contacted the National Lottery for comment.
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