title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Generally, the assumed role of these "jamaat" members cycle in a way that they may be engaged as a preacher, a cook or as a cleaner at other times. Among Tabligh Jamaat members, this is generally referred to as "khidmat" which essentially connotes to serving their companions and freeing them for tablighi engagements. The members of the Jamaat are assigned these roles based on the day's "mashwara". The markaz keeps records of each "jamaat" and its members, the identity of whom is verified from their respective mosques. Mosques are used to assist the tablighi activities of individual "jamaats" that voluntarily undertake preaching missions. Members of a "jamaat", ideally, pay expenses themselves so as to avoid financial dependence on anyone.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: An annual gathering of followers, called "ijtema", is summoned at headquarters of the respective countries. A typical "ijtema" continues for three days and ends with an exceptionally long prayer. These gatherings are considered moments of intense blessings by Tabligh Jamaat members and are known to attract members in excess of 2 million in some countries. The oldest ijtema of the World started in Bhopal, capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India. It attracts people from all over World. Almost 2 million people gather for this annual gathering. The largest of such annual gatherings is held in Bangladesh. The Bengali gathering, called "Bishwa Ijtema" (World Gathering), converges followers from around the World in Tongi near Dhaka, Bangladesh, with an attendance exceeding 3 million people. In 2018 there was an ijtema in Aurangabad in India which changed the whole scenario of tablighi with minimum attendance of 4 million people gather from around the world under the patronage of Maulana saad khandalwi of nizamuddin markaz. The second largest Tabligh Jamaat gathering takes place in Raiwind, Pakistan which was attended by approximately 1.5 million people in 2004. In 2011 Pakistan divided the Ijtema into two parts and a total of 1 million people attended each of the two Ijtema.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The method adopted by Muhammad Ilyas was to organise units (called "jamaats", meaning "Assembly") of at least ten persons and send them to various villages or neighborhoods to preach. These outings, "Dawah" tours (see below), are now organised by Tablighi Jamaat leaders. In these tours, emphasis is laid on "A hadith about virtues of action" (imitating Muhammad). In the ahadith (reported sayings of Muhammad) of "fazail" (virtues) these has been called "Eemaan" (faith) and "Ihtisab" (for the sake of Allah) and Tablighi Jamaat believes this is the most vital deriving force for reward in "akhirah" (afterlife).


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Tablighi Jamaat founder Ilyas preached that knowledge of virtues and "A'amalu-Saliha" (Good Deeds and Actions) takes precedence over the knowledge of "Masa'il" (jurisprudence). Knowing jurisprudence detail (Fara'id (mandates) and Sunan (traditions) of Salat) is useful only if a person is ready to perform rituals such as offering Salat.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: They insist that the best way of learning is teaching and encouraging others, with the books prescribed by Tabligi Jamaat Movement in the light of Quran and Hadith stories of Prophets, "Sahaba" (Companions of Prophet) and "Awlia Allah" ("Friends of Allah"). A collection of books, usually referred as "Tablighi Nisaab" (Tablighi Curriculum), is recommended by Tabligh Jamaat elders for general reading. This set includes four books namely ("Hayatus Sahabah", "Fazail-e-Amaal", "Fazail-e-Sadqaat" and "Muntakhab Ahadith").


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: In its early days and in South Asia, the Tabligh movement aimed to return to orthodoxy and "purify" the Muslim religio-cultural identity of heterodox or "borderline" Muslims who still practised customs and religious rites connected with Hinduism. Especially to counteract the efforts of Hindu proselytising movements who targeted these often recently converts from Hinduism. Unlike common proselytising movements, Tablighi Jamaat has mostly focused on making Muslims 'better and purer' and ideally "religiously perfect", rather than preaching to the non-Muslims. This is because (it believes) dawah to non-Muslims will only be effective (or will be much more effective) when a Muslim reaches "perfection".


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi Jamaat follows an informal organisational structure and keeps an introvert institutional profile.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: It has been described as "a free-floating religious movement with minimal dependence on hierarchy, leadership positions, and decision-making procedures."


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: It keeps its distance from mass media and avoids publishing details about its activities and membership. The group also exercises complete abstinence from expressing opinions on political and controversial issues mainly to avoid the disputes which would accompany these endorsements. As an organisation, Tabligh Jamaat does not seek donations and is not funded by anyone, in fact members have to bear their own expenditures. Since there is no formal registration process and no official membership count has ever been taken, the exact membership statistics remain unknown. The movement discourages interviews with its elders and has never officially released texts, although there are publications associated with the movement (usually referred as "Tablighi Nisaab" [Tablighi Curriculum]). The emphasis has never been on book learning, but rather on first-hand personal communication.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The organisation's activities are coordinated through centres called "Markaz". It also has country wise centres in over 200 countries to co-ordinate its activities. These centres organize volunteer, self-funding people in groups (called "jamaats"), averaging ten to twelve people, for reminding Muslims to remain steadfast on path of Allah. These "jamaats" and preaching missions are self funded by their respective members.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Ameer is title of supervisor (doyen) in the Tabligh Jamaat and the attribute largely sought is the quality of faith, rather than the worldly rank. The ameer of Tabligh Jamaat is appointed for life by a central consultative council ("shura") and elders of the Tabligh Jamaat. The first "ameer" was Maulana (cleric) Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi, later succeeded by his son Maulana (cleric) Muhammad Yusuf Kandhalawi and then by Maulana (cleric) Inaam ul Hasan the current Ameer is the great-grandson Maulana Saad Kandhalawi. During sometime in 1992, 3 years before the time of his demise, Maulana (cleric) Inaamul Hasan, formed a 10-member Shura (committee) to appoint an ameer. This 10 member shura committee consisted of Maulana Saeed Ahmed Khan Sb, Mufti Zainul Abideen, Maulana Umar sb palanpuri, Maulana Izhar ul Hasan, Maulana Zubair ul hasan, Miyaji Mehraab sb, Haji Abdul Wahab Sb, Haji engineer Abdul Muqeet sb, Haji Afzal sb and Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi, Dr. Khalid Siddiqui Aligarh


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: In Tablighi Jamaat, women are encouraged to stay home, and to choose a life of "segregation between female and male". However they also engage in proselytizing activities, discussing among themselves in small groups the basics of Tabligh and traveling with their husbands (or another "mahram") on proselytizing trips. Tabligh inculcates in them that dawah is also important alongside taking care of their spouses or taking care of their children.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: According to a 1996 study by Barbara Metcalf, the Tablighi Jamaat has encouraged women to participate since the beginning of the movement. Some scholars objected to the participation of women, but Muhammad Ilyas slowly gained their support and the first "jamaat" of women was formed in Nizamuddin, Delhi. Accompanied by a close male relative, ("mahram"), women are encouraged to go out in jamaats and work among other women and family members while following the rules of modesty, seclusion and segregation. They observe strict rules of hijab by covering their faces and hands. "Jamaats" of women sometimes participate in large annual meetings; otherwise, they commonly hold neighbourhood meetings.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi Jamaat tends to blur the boundaries of gender roles and both genders share a common behavioural model and their commitment to tabligh. The emphasis is on a common nature and responsibilities shared by both genders. Just as men redraw the gender roles when they wash and cook during the course of "da'wa" tours, women undertake the male responsibility of sustaining the household. Women do not play any role in the higher echelons of the movement, but their opinions are taken into due considerations. Women and the family members are being to told to learn Quran and follow 5 Amaals in every day life, Taleem of Ahadees, Quran recitation, 6 Points muzakera, and mashwara for daily life work and fikr for the whole world as people from around the world will be coming and they are the one who has to learn before they teach.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tabligh Jamaat has been criticised—especially by Hizb ut-Tahrir and Jamaat-e-Islami—for their neutral political stance and failure to assist Islamist forces in the fight against secular or non-Islamist opponents. Specifically they criticise the Tabligh Jamaat's neutral position towards issues in South Asia such as the introduction of an Islamic constitution in Pakistan (1950s), Islam vs Socialism (1969–1971), communal riots in India in the 1970s and 1980s, the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat Movement (1974), and Nizam-e-Mustafa Movement (1977). The Tablighi Jamaat, in response, states that it is only by avoiding the political debates that the Tablighi Jamaat has been successful in reawakening the spiritual conscience of the followers. The apolitical stance also helped them operate in difficult times, such as during the governments of Ayub Khan (1960s) and Indira Gandhi (1975–77), when other sociopolitical Islamic groups faced restrictions.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The difference of opinion regarding political participation also marks the fundamental difference between the Tablighi Jamaat and Islamist movements. While the Islamists believe that the acquisition of political power is the absolute requirement for the establishment of an Islamic society, the Tablighi Jamaat believes that mere political power is not enough to ensure effective organisation of the Islamic social order. The exclusive focus of the Tablighi Jamaat's attention is the individual, and members believe the reformation of society and institutions will only be effective through education and reform of individuals. They insist that nations and social systems exist by the virtue of the individuals who form them; therefore, the reform must begin at the grass-roots with individuals and not at the higher level of political structure.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Nasiruddin Albani in his book "Darsush Shaikhul Albani" talks about Tabligh Jamaat's aloofness from politics,


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi Jamaat has received criticism in the Indian subcontinent from the Barelvi movement. One of the main criticisms against them is that the men neglect and ignore their families, especially by going out on "da'wa" tours. Tablighi Jamaat participants, in response, argue that both genders should be equally engaged in Tabligh. They further say that women, like men, are also urged to carry the responsibility of Tabligh and that men should facilitate women's participation by providing childcare.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi Jamaat has been criticised for being retrogressive. The women in the movement observe hijab for which the movement has been accused of keeping women "strictly subservient and second string".


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Before the rule of Prince Muhammad bin Salman, Salafist and Wahhabi ulema in Saudi Arabia issued rulings "declaring Tablighis to be deviants and forbidding participation in Tablighi activities unless the reason for the participation is to criticize" the alleged deviancy. They also issued fatwa prohibiting Tablighi literature and preaching in that country.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi Jamaat focuses on religion and generally avoids political activities and debates, claiming that the reformation of society will be achieved through personal spiritual renewal. It has been criticized by some Muslims for being too pacifist/quietist.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: According to the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), the Tablighi Jamaat teaches that "jihad" is "primarily as personal purification rather than as holy warfare". Because of its disavowal of violent jihad, the Tablighi activities have been banned in Saudi Arabia and some Islamist groups have accused the Tabligh of weakening support for jihad amongst Muslims.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: However, according to Stratfor Global Intelligence, as of 2008, Tablighi Jamaat has been connected to terrorism plots such as


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi members who have been charged with terrorism include: Zacarias Moussaoui (charged in the United States in the 11 September attacks), Hervé Djamel Loiseau (French citizen found in Afghanistan), and Djamel Beghal (Algerian-born French citizen and Al Qaeda member who was convicted of plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris), Syed Rizwan Farook. In a foiled January 2008 bombing plot in Barcelona, Spain, "some media reports" stated that a Muslim leader in the city stated that the fourteen suspects arrested by police in a series of raids (where bomb-making materials were seized) were members of the Tablighi Jamaat.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: At the same time, many outside observers have described the group as "apolitical" at least in part because it avoids media and government notice, operates largely in secrecy, and has missionaries that lead austere lifestyles.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Fred Burton, Scott Stewart, Mumtaz Ahmad, and Shireen Khan Burki explain the connection between TJ and jihadism by the fact that


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Tablighi Jamaat operates in every sense as a secret society in this country [Britain], as much as elsewhere [...] Its meetings are held behind closed doors. We don't know who attends them. How much money it has. It publishes no minutes or accounts. It doesn't talk about itself. It is extremely difficult to penetrate.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Some have compared the group's ideology to Khawarij whereas others point out that the Tablighi Jamaat takes a "traditionalist" approach to Islam in contrast to Khawarij's extremist and often heretical approach.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Tablighi Jamaat tried to expand the Abbey Mills Mosque into the largest mosque in the United Kingdom. The plan attracted controversy, and the Tabligh was denied permission.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Tablighi Jamaat has been banned in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. In some Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, where its puritanical preachings are viewed as extremist. In February 2020, a counter-terrorism operation in Russia led to the arrest of seven Tablighis and dismantled the terrorist cell affiliated to the Tablighi Jamaat. According to Russian intelligence, the terrorist cell was involved in dissemination of materials and radicalization. The Tablighi Jamaat has been banned in Russia since 2009. The Supreme Court of Russia also recommended the Tablighi Jamaat to be included into the list of terrorist groups monitored by the Kremlin. On 10 December 2021, Saudi Arabia further warned against Tablighi Jamaat, calling it a "danger to society" and "one of the gates of terrorism", while all forms of innovated Islamic preaching are already banned in the kingdom. The announcement was made by the country's Minister of Islamic Affairs, Dr Abdullatif Al Al-Sheikh. It is pertinent to note that all other Arab countries specifically Gulf Arabic countries such as United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman have Tablighi Jamat Maraakez (Centres) and many locals are openly involved in Tabligh activity.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Between 27 February and 1 March 2020, the movement organised an international mass religious gathering at the Masjid Jamek in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The Tablighi Jamaat gathering has been linked to more than 620 COVID-19 cases, making it the largest-known centre of transmission of the virus in Southeast Asia. The Sri Petaling event resulted in the biggest increase in COVID-19 cases in Malaysia, with almost two thirds of the 673 confirmed cases in Malaysia linked to this event by 17 March 2020. Most of the COVID-19 cases in Brunei originated here, and other countries including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines have traced their cases back to this event. By 20 May 2020, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah confirmed that 48% of Malaysia's COVID-19 cases (3,347) had been linked to the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Despite the outbreak, Tablighi Jamaat organised a second international mass gathering on 18 March in Gowa Regency near Makassar in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Though the organisers initially rebuffed official directives to cancel the gathering, they subsequently complied and cancelled the gathering.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Yet another gathering was organised in Pakistan near Lahore at Raiwind, for 250,000 people. The event was "called off" in response to the officials' requests, but the participants had already gathered and communed together. When they returned, the virus travelled with them, including two cases in the Gaza strip. During testing, around 40 members of the Tablighi Jamaat were found to be COVID-infected. Another 50 people including four Nigerian women, suspected to be the carriers of the virus were quarantined 50 km from Lahore. In Hyderabad, Sindh, 38 members of the organisation were found to be positive for coronavirus. Raiwind, the place where the event was held has been locked down by Pakistani authorities and the police arrested Tablighi Jamaat members from their offices in Sindh and Punjab for violating the law.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: A member of the organisation stabbed a policemen while trying to escape from an isolation facility. Ninety-four more Tableeghi Jamaat members tested positive for the coronavirus on 31 March 2020 in Hyderabad, in the Sindh province.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Tablighi Jamaat wanted to arrange the program somewhere in Vasai, Maharashtra. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Maharashtra, the Government of Maharashtra and Mumbai Police called off the meeting. After the rejection from the Government of Maharashtra, the Nizamuddin faction the Tablighi Jamaat held the religious congregational program (Ijtema) in Nizamuddin West, Delhi. There were also other violation of rules by foreign speakers including misuse of tourist visa for missionary activities and not taking 14-day home quarantine for travellers from abroad.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Nizamuddin Markaz Mosque added that the officials there"met the Ld. DM and apprised him of the stranded visitors and once again sought permission for the vehicles arranged by us," to clear the Markaz premises and take the devotees back home.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: "Under such compelling circumstances there was no option for Markaz Nizamuddin but to accommodate the stranded visitors with prescribed medical precautions till such time that situation becomes conducive for their movement or arrangements are made by the authorities," the Tablighi Jamaat HQ said.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: On March 21 the Markaz directed everyone "not to venture out until 9 PM as desired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, therefore the plans to move back to their native places by way of means other than railways also did not materialise."


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: At least 24 of the attendees had tested positive for the virus among the 300 who showed symptoms by 31 March 2020. It is believed that the sources of infection were preachers from Indonesia. Many had returned to their states and also housed foreign devotees without the knowledge of local governments. and eventually started local transmissions especially in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam. The entire Nizamuddin West area has been cordoned off by the police as of 30 March, and medical camps have been set up. After evacuation from the markaz, of the scores of jamaat attendees, 167 of them were quarantined in a railway facility in south east Delhi amid concerns over their safety and transmission of the virus. The Tablighi Jamaat gathering emerged as one of India's major coronavirus hotspots in India, after 1445 out of 4067 cases were linked to attendees according to the Health Ministry. On 18 April 2020, Central Government said that 4,291 cases (or 29.8% Of the total 14,378 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India) were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, and these cases were spread across 23 states and Union Territories.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Questions have been raised as to how the Delhi Police, which under direct control of the Union Home Ministry headed by the Home Minister & the then Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah allowed this event to proceed in the midst of a pandemic, while a similar event was prohibited in Mumbai by the Maharashtra Police. Once the COVID lockdown came into effect in Delhi from 22 March onwards, the missionaries remaining in the Nizamuddin Markaz were trapped, and the functionaries began to seek assistance from the authorities for their evacuation. As of 4 April, more than 1000 cases, representing 30% all confirmed cases in India, were linked to the Nizamuddin event. Some 22,000 people that came in contact with the Tablighi Jamaat missionaries had to be quarantined. On 31 March 2020, an FIR was filed against Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi and others by Delhi Police Crime Branch. On 8 April 2020, the Delhi Police traced Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi in Zakirnagar in South-East Delhi, where he claimed to be under self-quarantine.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: People associated with the ruling Hindutva-aligned Bharatiya Janata Party called out Indian Hindus to socially boycott Indian Muslims. This drew criticism from Arab leaders and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded: "the virus did not discriminate between people on the basis of faith, community, race or nationality".


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: On 12 October 2020, Mumbai court discharged the members with the order stating they didn't act negligently to spread COVID and didn't disobey to the orders of the Indian authorities.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Tablighi Jamaat has no membership lists nor formal procedures for membership, which makes it difficult to quantify and verify affiliations.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The former chief minister of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pervaiz Elahi is also a strong supporter of the Tablighi Jamaat. During his tenure in 2011, 75 kanals of land (, ) were purchased for a Tablighi Jamaat mosque at the Raiwind Markaz.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: The Former Pakistan Presidents- Farooq Leghari and Muhammad Rafiq Tarar were believed to be associated with the movement, the Indian president Dr Zakir Hussain was also affiliated with tabligh jammat


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Singers, actors and models, including Attaullah Essa Khailwi, Gulzar Alam, Bacha, Alamzeb Mujahid, and Junaid Jamshed are also affiliated with the movement.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: Former Lieutenant General and head of Inter-Services Intelligence Javed Nasir and General Mahmud Ahmed of the Pakistan Army both became members of Tablighi Jamaat during their service. The Tablighi Jamaat also has a notable following among Pakistani professional cricketers: Shahid Afridi, Mohammad (formerly "Youhana") Yousuf and the former cricketers Saqlain Mushtaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Saeed Ahmed are active members. Mohammad Yousuf's conversion from Christianity to Islam is widely attributed to the influence of the Tabligh Jamaat.


title: Tablighi Jamaat

text: In Malaysia, prominent actors and singers such as , Nabil Ahmad, Aliff Aziz, Anuar Zain, Amar Asyraf, and have all been involved with Tablighi Jamaat. One of Malaysia's most prominent actress Neelofa, has also participated in Tablighi Jamaat's Tours with her husband (), as a result of which she now dons the Islamic face veil ever since.


title: 9×39mm

text: The 9x39 is based on the Soviet 7.62×39mm round, but with the neck expanded to fit a 9.3 mm bullet. Final design was completed by N. Zabelin, L. Dvoryaninova and Y. Frolov of the TsNIITochMash in the 1980s. The intent was to create a subsonic cartridge for suppressed firearms that had more power, range and penetration than 7.62 US subsonic round used in AKM-type rifles at the time. The commercial Wolf Ammunition bullet weighs 276 grain, or 18 grams, a little more than double that of the normal 123 gr 7.62×39 mm round, and has only subsonic muzzle velocity. This reduced velocity does not produce a sonic boom, but also limits the muzzle energy and effective range of a weapon when compared to high velocity rounds normally used in (non-suppressed) rifles. The round has an optimistic effective lethal range of 400 to 530 meters and a maximum penetration of up to 10 mm of steel. Like the 5.45×39mm cartridge, 9×39mm SP-5 features an airpocket in the tip, which increases its tendency to yaw or "keyhole" upon impact, thus increasing soft tissue damage in human targets. The armor-piercing SP-6 cartridge is more effective against light armor, vehicles, or light barrier targets.


title: 9×39mm

text: SP-5 (7N8) – The SP-5 (СП-5) (SP: "Spetsialnyj Patron"; "special cartridge") was developed by Nikolai Zabelin. It is a conventional lead core FMJ bullet, developed for accuracy.


title: 9×39mm

text: SP-5UZ – The SP-5UZ (СП5-УЗ) is an SP-5 variant with an increased charge intended for a factory-specific strength testing of the weapons.


title: 9×39mm

text: SP-6 (7N9) – The SP-6 (СП-6) was developed by Yuri Frolov. It has a hardened metal armor-piercing core. It can penetrate of steel at 500 meters or of steel, of titanium or 30 layers of Kevlar at 200 meters. At 100 meters it can penetrate of steel or GOST 3 rated body armor, while retaining enough power to inflict damage to a soft target behind it.


title: 9×39mm

text: PAB-9 (7N12) – The SP-6's bullet is expensive to manufacture, so an attempt was made to make a lower-cost version of the cartridge. The PAB-9 (ПАБ-9) used a stamped rather than machined steel core. It sacrificed too much performance to be usable. As of 2011, its usage by Russian troops is prohibited.


title: 9×39mm

text: SPP – The SPP (СПП) (SPP: "Snaiperskiy, Povishennaya Probivaemost"; "sniper – increased penetration") is a sniper round with increased penetration.


title: 9×39mm

text: BP – The BP (БП) (BP: "Broneboinaya Pulya"; "armor-piercing bullet") is an armor-piercing round. Three modernizations of PAB-9 were created under the designation of BP to remedy its unusable performance.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery established in 1994 in the United Kingdom. It is regulated by the Gambling Commission, and is currently operated by Camelot Group, to which the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007, but will be operated by Allwyn Entertainment Ltd from 2024.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Prizes are paid as a lump sum (with the exception of the Set For Life which is paid over a set period) and are tax-free. Of all money spent on National Lottery games, around 53% goes to the prize fund and 25% to "good causes" as set out by Parliament (though some of this is considered by some to be a form of "stealth tax" levied to support the National Lottery Community Fund, a fund constituted to support public spending). 12% goes to the UK Government as lottery duty, 4% to retailers as commission, and a total of 5% to operator Camelot, with 4% to cover operating costs and 1% as profit.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: From introduction in November 1994 until April 2021, lottery tickets were able to be purchased by people at least 16 years old. Scratchcards, from introduction in March 1995 to April 2021, were also able to be purchased by people at least 16 years old. As of 22 April 2021, players must be 18 years of age to purchase lottery tickets and scratchcards (online and in-store).


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: A statute of 1698 provided that in England lotteries were by default illegal unless specifically authorised by statute. State lotteries were established by the Bank of England to generate money for 'good causes' and also to enable Britain to go to war. Early English state lotteries included the Million Lottery (1694) and the Malt Lottery (1697).


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: A National Health Service Lottery was piloted in 1988 but cancelled for legal reasons before the first draw.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The UK's state-franchised lottery was set up under government licence by the government of John Major in 1993. The National Lottery is franchised to a private operator; the Camelot Group was awarded the franchise on 25 May 1994.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The first draw took place on 19 November 1994 with a television programme presented by Noel Edmonds. The first numbers drawn were 30, 3, 5, 44, 14 and 22, the bonus was 10, and seven jackpot winners shared a prize of £5,874,778.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in May 2002, designed to combat falling sales. The main game was renamed "Lotto", and Lottery Extra became "Lotto Extra", though Camelot would later retire Lotto Extra on 8 July 2006 due to low sales. The stylised crossed-fingers logo was modified. However, the games as a collective are still known as "the National Lottery". It is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the United Kingdom.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Originally, the draw machines for Lotto and Lotto Extra were the Criterion model, manufactured by Smartplay International Inc., but on 25 October 2003, Camelot replaced them with Smartplay's Magnum I model. These machines were called Topaz, Sapphire, Amethyst, Opal, Garnet & Moonstone, while the older Criterion machines from 1994 were called Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot & Guinevere, with the addition of Vyvyan & Galahad in 2000. On 21 November 2009, Camelot replaced its older Lotto draw machines again. The new machines have the same names of those used on earlier machines, except Vyvyan & Galahad. On 9 May 2010, new machines for the Thunderball game were introduced, replacing Smartplay's older Halogen I model that had been in use since 1999, following the major rule changes on Thunderball. The current Lotto machines are the Smartplay Magnum II model, and the current Thunderball and Set For Life machines are the Smartplay Halogen II model. The Thunderball & Set for Life machines are all named Excalibur, named after King Arthur's sword.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On 16 March 2018, Camelot advised more than 10 million players with online accounts to change their passwords because of a "low-level" cyber attack that affected 150 customer accounts. They claim that no money was taken from customers. Camelot claimed the hackers used a method called credential stuffing and said the attack appeared to have begun on 7 March.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Players buy tickets with their choice of six different numbers between 1 and 59; there is provision for random numbers to be generated automatically for those who do not wish to choose, known as a 'Lucky Dip'. The entry fee to the Lotto draw was set at £1 per board from its introduction, and increased to £2 in October 2013.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The draw is conducted twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, except that, between 1994 and 2009, a draw on Christmas Day was moved to Christmas Eve; since 2010, draws are held on Christmas Day if that was a Wednesday or Saturday. Saturday draws started on 19 November 1994, under the name 'National Lottery'; the first Wednesday draw was on 5 February 1997. All of the draws are shown live on their YouTube channel at 20:00 on Wednesdays, and at 19:45 on Saturdays.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Lotto was originally called "The National Lottery", but was renamed "Lotto" in an update in May 2002 after ticket sales decreased. Lotto is by far the most popular draw, with around 15 to 45 million tickets sold each draw. The most winners for a single jackpot was 133 in January 1995, each player winning £122,510.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: In the draw, six numbered balls are drawn without replacement from a set of 59 balls numbered from 1 to 59 (formerly 1 to 49 until October 2015). A further "Bonus Ball" is also drawn, which affects only players who match five numbers.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: There are six prize tiers, which are awarded to players who match at least two of the six drawn numbers, with prizes increasing for matching more of the drawn numbers. The players who match all six drawn numbers win equal shares of the jackpot; the chance of doing so is 1 in 45,057,474. Similarly, if four or five balls are matched, the relevant prize is divided equally between all who match that many balls.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: If no player matches all six numbers, the jackpot is added to that of the next Lotto draw—a "rollover". This accumulation was limited to three consecutive draws until 10 February 2011, when it was increased to four. Rollovers are frequent, with for example 20 Wednesday (39%) and 13 Saturday rollovers (25%) in 2011 (fewer tickets are sold on Wednesdays than Saturdays, increasing the probability of a rollover). "Treble rollovers"—two consecutive rollovers—are much less common. The first quadruple rollover draw occurred on Saturday 29 September 2012 with a jackpot of £19.5 million. In the event of a quadruple rollover, if no tickets matched all six main numbers, the jackpot was shared between the tickets that match five numbers and the bonus ball. In October 2015, this rollover limit was replaced by a jackpot cap.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Camelot announced that the ticket price was to double to £2 from 3 October 2013, with prizes restructured. The announcement was followed by news that large bonuses were to be set aside for management pay, which drew criticism.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The arrival of the "New Lotto" meant bigger jackpots with an estimated average of £1.1 million extra for Saturday's draw and £400,000 on Wednesday. Players matching three numbers receive an extra £15, up from £10 before and an extra £40 for matching 4 numbers. Those matching five numbers receive £500 less, and £50,000 less when matching five numbers + the bonus ball, compared to the former system.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: As part of the refresh, a new Lotto Raffle was introduced, with at least 50 winners of £20,000 per draw. The announcement and launch of the refreshed Lotto game caused controversy due to the price increase (dubbed as a "tax on the poor"). The new game launched with a £10,000,000 jackpot and 1,000 Lotto Raffle winners of £20,000.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: From 10 October 2015, Camelot announced further changes to the Lotto game which increased the pool of numbers from 49 to 59. Rollovers are no longer limited in number, instead the size of the jackpot is capped; the cap is reached after about 14 rollovers. When the jackpot gets to £50 million, if no-one matches all six main numbers the jackpot will rollover to the following draw. In the event nobody matches all six numbers on that draw the jackpot "rolls down" and is combined with the prize fund for the next prize category where there is at least one winner.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Since the rule changes in October 2015 there is also a "match 2" prize of a free lucky dip ticket for another draw, with odds of doing so at 1 in 10. This created much criticism as the breakdown of prizes announced by Camelot includes the value of these prizes (£2 each winner) within the draw's prize fund even though each match 2 prize winner does not see any monetary value unless their ticket matches three main numbers or more in the following draw. Included with each Lotto ticket is the Millionaire Lotto Raffle where 20 players win £20,000 each and one player wins £1 million per draw.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: In January 2016, the Lotto jackpot reached the £50 million cap and rolled over once more to reach a record-breaking £66 million. This was won by two ticket holders who received £33 million each. In August of that year, the jackpot cap was lowered to £22 million. If nobody won the jackpot when it reached £22 million or more, it would roll to the next draw one final time. Then, the jackpot must be won: if no-one matched all six main numbers, the jackpot prize was be shared by the players with the most winning numbers.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: From October 2015 until October 2018, the total prize fund was 47.50% of draw sales in a normal week, including the raffle. The three-ball prize winners, with odds of 96 to 1, received £25 each; the two-ball prize winners received a free £2 entry. 17.82% of the sales are divided as shown in the table and split equally with the number of winners for each selection. In October 2018 the Lotto Raffle was discontinued.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Wednesday 21 November 2018 brought significant changes. Ever since the game's inception, all prizes levels from "match 4" and above varied depending on the number of winners at each level and on total ticket sales. From this date, each prize level is a fixed amount per winner, similar to the Thunderball, and Set For Life draws. For the changes to be made possible, the Lotto Millionaire raffle was discontinued. The ticket price of £2 and number pool (1–59) remain the same.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Rollovers are limited to five. If nobody matches all six main numbers after the fifth rollover, the jackpot is shared between every prize winner including match 2 winners from October 2020. This is called a "Jackpot Rolldown". Every cash prize therefore increases substantially.(estimated amounts shown in brackets).


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: All prize levels have a fixed prize amount. Due to this payout structure on occasion there will be a larger allocated prize fund than required to pay out all winners. This additional prize money is then placed into a reserve fund which is used when additional winners have winning matches. Once this surplus amount reaches a specified value a special event "must be won" draw is offered usually with a jackpot of £15-£20million.(rolling down if no match 6 winner). On Saturday 24 August 2019, Camelot also run a "double prize" event. All cash prizes were doubled although this has not been repeated since.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Lotto Hotpicks uses the main Lotto draw for its numbers but is a different game. The player chooses both the numbers "and" the number of draw balls they want to try to match, up to a maximum of five. However, if the player does not match "all" the numbers chosen, they are not a winner. The National Lottery describes Hotpicks as "five games in one", because the player has a choice of five ways of playing the game, each offering different odds and payouts.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Prior to 2015 (49 numbers) Prizes were 1 number = £5, 2 Numbers = £40, 3 Numbers = £450, 4 Numbers £7,000, 5 Numbers = £130,000. At launch, Match 1 & Match 5 were not available. These 2 options were added at a later date.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The Thunderball jackpot draw requires players to pick five main numbers from 1 to 39 and one 'Thunderball' number from 1 to 14 for an entry fee of £1 per line. Prizes are won by matching the Thunderball number or at least three main numbers alone. The more numbers matched, the bigger the prize won. The top prize, now £500,000, is won by matching all five main numbers as well as the Thunderball. The lowest prize is £3 for matching the Thunderball alone. Draws take place four times a week – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays – and are shown live on the official website and on their YouTube channel at 20:15.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The first Thunderball draw was held on 12 June 1999 and the draw was originally only held on Saturdays, however, from 23 October 2002, the draw was held on Wednesdays too. From 2006 to 2008, only the Saturday draw was televised, while on Wednesday the draw took place prior to the live TV show and the winning results were announced during the show.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The rules of Thunderball changed substantially on 9 May 2010. Before this date, Thunderball matches were drawn from numbers 1 to 34; there was no prize for matching the Thunderball number alone, and the top prize (for matching five main numbers and the Thunderball) was half the current jackpot at £250,000. After this date, the Friday draw was introduced in addition to the Wednesday and Saturday draws. Following the change of rules, while the chance of winning "anything" on Thunderball more than doubled, the chance of winning the top prizes more than halved. The Tuesday draw was added on 30 January 2018.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On 18 March 2019, the first Set For Life draw took place. The game offers a top prize of £10,000 per month for thirty years (£3,600,000). Each line costs £1.50, and draws take place every Monday and Thursday at 20:00. Players choose five main numbers from 1 to 47, and one "Life Ball" from 1 to 10.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On Saturday 7 February 2004 the lottery operator Camelot launched a pan-European lottery: EuroMillions. The first draw took place on Friday 13 February 2004 in Paris. The UK, France and Spain were involved initially. Lotteries from Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland joined the draw on 8 October 2004. The draws are currently made in Paris and shown recorded in the UK on the official website twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, approximately three hours after the draw has taken place. The entry fee to the EuroMillions draw is £2.50 per board. The odds of winning the jackpot are 139,838,160 to 1.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On Friday 26 January 2018, the first EuroMillions HotPicks draw took place. It uses the same five main numbers as the EuroMillions draw and offers players the chance to win one of five prizes from £10 up to £1 million. The game works in a similar way to Lotto HotPicks whereby players have to decide how many numbers they are going to match. If they do not successfully match all of their selected numbers, then no prize is awarded.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: As well as tickets for the draw games, the National Lottery also sells scratchcards. Introduced in 1995, they are small pieces of card where an area has been covered by a thin layer of opaque latex that can be scratched off. Under this are concealed the items/pictures that must be found in order to win. Scratchcards can be purchased in most newsagents and supermarkets; they can cost £1, £2, £3 or £5 and come in many different forms, with a variety of prizes and ways to win.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The National Lottery used to offer £10 scratchcards but these were discontinued in September 2019, partly because they were attractive to problem gamblers.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The generic scratchcard requires the player to match three of the same prize amounts. If this is accomplished, they win that amount; the highest being £2,000,000 on a £5 scratchcard. Other scratchcards involve matching symbols, pictures or words.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Initially, all scratchcards were sold for £1. Over the years, scratchcards that range in price from £2 to £10 have been available. More expensive scratchcards are larger and offer more games with higher-value prizes. Some scratchcards have jackpots other than one-off payments, such as a yearly sum or a car. Odds for winning a top prize on a scratchcard depend greatly on how many have been sold and whether there is any top prize scratchcards in circulation at time of purchase. As the range of scratchcard games has increased, the odds of winning vary greatly. For a game with the highest available jackpot of £4,000,000, the odds of winning the jackpot are around 1 in 4,000,000, whereas for a game with a low jackpot prize (and thousands of jackpots available), the odds of winning the jackpot are as low as around 1 in 10,000.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Instant Win games are online games where the player can win prizes instantly. Some games are similar in format to scratchcards, with others involving more interactive play such as dice-rolling or matching special symbols. It is made clear that the Instant Win games are solely based on luck and that no skill or judgement is involved. Players must be registered in order to buy or try an Instant Win. "Try" games are free of charge and no payouts are made in respect of any prizes. As with scratchcards, there are a wide variety of Instant Win games available with different odds of winning prizes. The cost to play varies from 25p to £5. The current highest prize is £1 million on a £5 game. Odds of winning a top prize vary on each Instant Win game, and may be higher or lower than their scratchcard counterpart.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Introduced in November 2009, each EuroMillions ticket purchased in the UK contains a unique "UK Millionaire Maker" code, consisting of four letters and five numbers. There is one winner per draw (with the exception of a special draw), with the winner receiving a fixed £1,000,000. Odds of winning depend on the number of tickets sold for that particular draw in the UK, but are generally 1 in 1,900,000 on Tuesdays and 1 in 2,950,000 on Fridays.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Lotto Extra was introduced on 13 November 2000 and was originally called Lottery Extra but renamed Lotto Extra in May 2002. It was an add-on from the main draw where a player could select "Lotto Extra same numbers" or a lucky dip. Players would pick six numbers from 49 and there were no lower tier prizes so a perfect match was required. Due to poor sales on the draw's last few years, the last draw was on 8 July 2006 and it was replaced by Dream Number.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Dream Number was launched on 15 July 2006. It involved a random seven-digit number generated for entry into the main draw. It was played independently of "Lotto", or if played with "Lotto" one Dream Number was generated per ticket, not per Lotto entry. The cost of entry was £1. A dream number was printed on every Lotto ticket bought, whether the player had chosen to enter it into the draw or not. Unlike other "Lotto" games, it was not possible to choose the number entered, and the order in which the digits were drawn was significant, as the digits had to be matched in the same order for the player to win. Players had to "match with the first digit in order to start winning prizes" (ranging from £2 to £500,000), which meant that 90% of players lost as soon as the first ball was drawn. Draws took place on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Originally, the draw was televised on both Wednesdays and Saturdays, but was latterly only televised on Saturdays, when the Wednesday draw took place prior to the live TV show and the winning dream number was announced during the show. All money raised for good causes from Dream Number went towards the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The National Lottery closed the Dream Number game on Wednesday 9 February 2011, which was also the date of the last Dream Number draw. It was then replaced by Lotto Plus 5.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The Daily Play draw started on Monday 22 September 2003 and could be played every day except Sunday and Christmas Day. By selecting seven numbers between 1 and 27, players could win anything from a free lucky dip to £30,000. The draw gave its players the chance to win a free daily play lucky-dip for not matching any numbers in the draw. The entry fee to the Daily Play draw was £1 per board.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Daily Play draws were broadcast via a webcast. In addition, from March 2005 to October 2005, the Daily Play draw was broadcast live on Challenge TV in the "Glory Ball" show, hosted by Jean Anderson, James McCourt, Jayne Sharp and Nikki Cowan.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Lotto Plus 5 was introduced in 2011 to plug the gaps between the Wednesday and Saturday Lotto draws, meaning it takes place on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Players can enter by paying an extra £1 when buying their Lotto ticket, which enters the same ticket numbers into five separate draws. Each draw offers fixed prizes for matching 3, 4, 5 and 6 numbers, with the jackpot being worth £250,000. It has been estimated that the game produces an extra 500,000 Lotto winners every week. Due to the changes to the main Lotto game (most notably the introduction of the Lotto raffle), Plus 5 was discontinued; The last Plus 5 draw was played on 1 October 2013, with the last date to buy a ticket being 23 September 2013.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: In August 1998, the National Lottery joined Vernons to create a lottery similar to the football pools. Players marked a playslip to state how many lines they wanted to play. Tickets were £1 per entry. The lottery terminal allocated 10 football fixtures on the player's ticket, and the player attempted to match these fixtures that resulted in a score draw (1–1, 2–2, 3–3 and so on).


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: To win, players had to match at least five fixtures which resulted in a score draw; this always won £5. Matching six won between £6 and £530, depending on how many total score draws there were in total over all the fixtures played. Matching seven score draws won between £27 and £67,000 depending on total score draws, and matching eight won from £1,850 to £667,000. Thus, the more score draws there were, the easier it was to win.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The game was not a success and was discontinued at the end of the 1998–9 football season, in April 1999.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Originally a special one-off draw, which was made to commemorate the arrival of the new millennium on 31 December 1999, but was brought back in 2000 to celebrate the next new year, and in 2001, 2002 and 2003 to celebrate Christmas on 24 December each year.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Players chose six years from 1900 to 1999 (in the Big Draw 2001 version, the range moved to 1901–2000, 1902–2001 in Christmas Millionaire Maker 2001, 1903–2002 in the 2002 version and 1904–2003 in the 2003 version) or a lucky dip on their Big Draw/Christmas Millionaire Maker ticket for the first game. Five years and a bonus year were drawn. If a player matched all five years drawn, they won the jackpot (lower prize tiers were also available for matching two to four years with/without the bonus year if the player did not match all five main years). Two years – one from 1000 to 1999 and another from 2000 to 2999 – were printed at the bottom of the ticket for the second game, and if the player matched both years on their Big Draw ticket they would win the jackpot.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: One machine was used for the first game, but for the second game two pairs of machines were used: first a left machine with the numbers from 10 to 19, and a right machine with 00 to 99; secondly a left machine with 20 to 29, and again a right machine with 00 to 99. One number was drawn at random from each of those machines, each pair creating a year. Each ticket cost £5 per board.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Camelot introduced the Lotto Raffle in October 2013, which was renamed Millionaire Raffle in October 2015. A raffle number was included with each line of Lotto numbers bought. Each raffle number consisted of a colour and eight numbers (e.g. AQUA 4579 2965), and each winning raffle number won a fixed amount of £20,000.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Until October 2015, 50 raffle numbers were drawn with each Lotto draw and the number of raffle winners increased by 50 each time the Lotto jackpot rolled over, with as many as 250 raffle winners in the event of a quadruple rollover. From 10 October 2015, the prize structure was changed, with 20 prizes of £20,000 and one prize of £1,000,000 with each Lotto draw. The Millionaire Raffle was discontinued after 17 November 2018 when the Lotto draw rules changed.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: As well as in shops, tickets can be purchased online. After registering an account, players can play regular numbers by direct debit, or load their account with money and play as and when they choose. Winners are notified by email.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Following the success of London's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, Olympic Lottery Scratchcards were launched on 27 July 2005 under the brand name "Go for Gold". 28% of the price of £1 went to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund, and the scratchcards were intended to raise £750,000,000 towards the cost of staging the games.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The majority of National Lottery draws take place on live television. The first National Lottery show (entitled "The National Lottery Live: The First Draw") was at 7 pm on Saturday 19 November 1994. Presented by Noel Edmonds, this was an hour long special, in which 49 contestants competed to become the first person to start the draw, the winner being 18-year-old Deborah Walsh. The first number to be drawn was 30. For its first few years, the TV show took the title "The National Lottery Live", and was presented mainly by Anthea Turner or Bob Monkhouse. Other notable presenters during this period included Dale Winton, Carol Smillie, Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. On 30 November 1996, live on BBC One, the draw machine failed to start.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: During the "2000 Today" broadcast on 31 December 1999, a special "Big Draw 2000" drawing was held to ring in the new millennium.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On 20 May 2006, during the draw on "The National Lottery Jet Set" that took place minutes before the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, several members of the group Fathers 4 Justice protested on the set causing the show to be taken off air for several minutes while the protesters were removed from the studio.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On 7 November 2015, live on BBC One, the Lotto draw machine failed to release all the balls, causing the draw to be postponed. The draw later took place off air, and the results were posted on the website.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Originally, the draws would take place in the BBC studio during the game show on Saturdays (and sometimes Wednesdays). However, in more recent years the channel airing the lottery draw has pre-recorded the non-draw parts of the show and then switched to National Lottery HQ for the live draws.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Wednesday draws at first had a 10-minute slot on BBC One, in the same set as the game show in the BBC studio, and presented by the same host. In later years the broadcast was hosted by various presenters in the National Lottery HQ studio; presenters included Gethin Jones, Christopher Biggins, John Barrowman, OJ Borg, Matt Johnson and Jenni Falconer. Alan Dedicoat provides the voice-over announcing the balls drawn, sometimes interacting with the presenter; he is known as "The Voice Of the Balls". Charles Nove is the relief announcer.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: As of 7 January 2012, there had been 1,678 draws – 784 Wednesday draws and 894 Saturday draws. In an initiative to spread BBC productions across the United Kingdom, all lottery shows were relocated to BBC Scotland.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: From January 2013, the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday draws were no longer broadcast, but could be viewed on the National Lottery's website; there was still a results update on BBC One at 10:45pm. On 24 November 2016, it was announced that the televised draws would be axed and moved to BBC iPlayer in January 2017. The last broadcast was on 31 December 2016.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: On 12 April 2018, it was announced that the televised Saturday night draw would be aired on ITV in a 90-second slot with Stephen Mulhern as the new host.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Between 10 March 2008 and 1 February 2010, the "National Lottery Xtra" channel was broadcast on Freeview channel 45 for one hour a day. Programming included content from winners of the jackpot and National Lottery Good Causes projects, as well as behind-the-scenes footage on how the National Lottery was operated.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: In March 2022, it was announced that the UK national lottery raised £1.84 billion for good causes from March 2021 to March 2022 in a new yearly record.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: By 2016, the National Lottery had raised about £35 billion for 'good causes', a programme which distributes money via grants. 25% of lottery revenue goes towards the fund, along with all unclaimed prizes. Additionally, 12% goes to the state. The prize fund is about 53% of revenue, with the remaining 10% going towards running costs and profits for the lottery organisers and ticket sellers.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The distribution of money to 'good causes' is not the responsibility of the operator (Camelot). It is the responsibility of the twelve distributors that make up The National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF), administered by the government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (which also sponsors the British Film Institute, which uses a portion of the National Lottery's funds to encourage film production). At present, 40% is awarded to health, education, environment and charitable causes, 20% to Sports, 20% to Arts and 20% to Heritage. On 19 November 2014, the National Lottery celebrated 20 years of its Good Causes fund, which as of 2014, has raised £32 billion for charities and projects in the UK. The National Lottery celebrated the 20th anniversary with the, 'Just Imagine' campaign which highlighted how the money has filtered through society to improve UK communities. Notable facts included that Good Causes had funded over 1300 elite athletes including Sir Chris Hoy, invested £43.5 million into the National Cycle Network and funded 12,700 after school clubs.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The Heritage Lottery Fund was set up by the government in 1994 to provide money for "projects involving the local, regional and national heritage". The funds come from the money raised by the National Lottery's 'Good Causes'. Since 1994, the Heritage Lottery Fund has given grants totalling approximately £4 billion to more than 26,000 projects.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: In 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the National Lottery, the National Lottery Awards were instituted as an annual event to provide recognition of the work of Lottery funded projects around the UK. Certain projects are selected as the best in particular categories. The trophies were designed and produced by Gaudio Awards.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The National Lottery is a jackpot system with the majority of winnings going to those few players who pick all six numbers. The average percentage return is the share of the ticket sales devoted to prize funds, about 45% (i.e., 45% of the money spent on tickets would be won in prizes). The spread of returns will be very wide and influenced by several factors that change week-by-week (e.g. the number of tickets sold, the "distinctiveness" and popularity of the winning numbers). Over an extremely long period the return on investment would approach the average, about 45% (a 55% loss). Over a shorter period there is a very small chance of a big win, but otherwise an average return of less than 45%; a numerical experiment using 10,000 random sets of numbers each week between 1997 and 2001 found that, had the tickets been bought, the rate of return would have been 29%.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: In their book "Scenarios for Risk Management and Global Investment Strategies", academics Rachel E S Ziemba and William T Ziemba say with regard to 6/49 lotteries, "Random numbers have an expected loss of about 55%. However, six-tuples of unpopular numbers have an edge with expected returns exceeding their cost by about 65%. The expected value rises and approaches $2.25 per dollar wagered when there are carryovers [UK term: rollovers]. Random numbers, such as those from lucky dip and quick pick, and popular numbers are worth more with carryovers but never have an advantage." They conclude that, due to the time that would be required to achieve success, "except for millionaires and pooled syndicates, it is not possible to use the unpopular numbers in a scientific way to beat the lotto and have high confidence of becoming rich; these aspiring millionaires will also most likely be residing in a cemetery when their distant heirs reach the goal".


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: Winning tickets must be claimed within 180 days of the draw taking place. If a prize is unclaimed within that time, it is distributed through the National Lottery Distribution Fund. For all major prizes (£50,000 and over) approximately two weeks after the draw, if no claim has been received, the geographical area in which the ticket was purchased is released to the public.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The highest unclaimed prize distributed this way to date was a winning ticket worth £63,837,543.60 which was bought in the Stevenage and Hitchin area for the Euromillions draw of 8 June 2012. This was a world record unclaimed prize. All investment income from unclaimed prizes also goes to good causes via the National Lottery Distribution Fund.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The National Lottery is regulated by the Gambling Commission. Previous regulators were the Office of the National Lottery until 1 April 1999, and the National Lottery Commission – a non-departmental public body reporting to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport – until 1 October 2013.


title: National Lottery (United Kingdom)

text: The Lottery was set up in 1993 under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 and was reformed under the National Lottery Act 1998 and the National Lottery Act 2006.


title: SanDisk

text: SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquired by Western Digital in 2016.


title: SanDisk

text: SanDisk was founded in 1988 by Eli Harari, Sanjay Mehrotra, and Jack Yuan, incorporated at the time as SunDisk. SanDisk co-founder Eli Harari developed the Floating Gate EEPROM which proved the practicality, reliability and endurance of semiconductor-based data storage.


title: SanDisk

text: In 1991 SanDisk produced the first flash-based solid-state drive (SSD) in a 2.5-inch hard disk drive form factor for IBM with a 20 MB capacity priced at about $1,000.


title: SanDisk

text: In 1992, SanDisk (then SunDisk) introduced FlashDisk, a series of memory cards made for the PCMCIA or PC card form factor, so they could be inserted into the expansion slots of many laptops and handheld PCs of the time. Unlike other similar products at the time, FlashDisks did not require a battery to store their contents. SanDisk discontinued their production in 2002, and the highest capacity model had 8 gigabytes of capacity.


title: SanDisk

text: In 1995, just before its initial public offering, SunDisk changed its name to SanDisk, possibly to avoid confusion with Sun Microsystems, a prominent computer manufacturer at the time.


title: SanDisk

text: On May 10, 2000, the Toshiba Corporation of Japan and the SanDisk Corporation said that they would jointly form a new semiconductor company to produce advanced flash memory, primarily for digital cameras.


title: SanDisk

text: In 2005 SanDisk entered the digital audio player market with the release of its first flash-based MP3 player, the SanDisk Sansa e100. As soon as 2006, they became the second largest maker of digital audio players in the United States behind Apple.


title: SanDisk

text: In 2012, the Enough Project ranked SanDisk the third highest of 24 consumer electronics companies on "progress on conflict minerals".


title: SanDisk

text: In 2014, SanDisk co-founder Harari won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama for his innovations and contributions to flash memory storage.


title: SanDisk

text: On January 8, 2015, NexGen Storage, which had been acquired by Fusion-io, was spun out to become an independent company once again.


title: SanDisk

text: SanDisk was acquired by hard disk drive manufacturer Western Digital on May 12, 2016, for US$19 billion.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was an annual promotional event sponsored by and featuring Victoria's Secret, a brand of lingerie. From 1995 to 2018, Victoria's Secret used the show to market its goods in high-profile settings. Models under contract to the company, known as Victoria's Secret Angels, were key participants at the event. The fashion show was cancelled in 2019, the same year its organizer, Edward Razek, resigned under public pressure.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The fashion show, at its peak viewership in 2001, had millions tuning in to watch and was known to be a lavish event with elaborate costumed lingerie, music by leading entertainers, and set design with changing themes. With dozens of the world's top fashion models selected to perform in it each year, the fashion show attracted celebrities and entertainers, and regularly featured special performers and acts.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: American network television broadcast the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show during prime time. The first few shows in the 1990s were held in the days preceding Valentine's Day, linking the brand to the holiday's romantic theme. In 1999 and 2000, the show was webcast. Beginning in 2001, the event was shifted to take place ahead of the Christmas holiday season. The show made its network television broadcast debut on ABC in 2001, with subsequent years (2002 - 2017) broadcast on CBS; the event returned to ABC for the final 2018 edition. The event was frequently held in New York City at the Plaza Hotel or the 69th Regiment Armory, in addition to special host cities including Miami, Los Angeles, Cannes, Paris, London, and Shanghai.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Cancellation, officially announced in November 2019 amid declining ratings and sales and growing criticism of Razek, was influenced by both the reckoning of the Me Too movement, fourth-wave feminism, and the association of L Brands' CEO Les Wexner with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Due to the immense amount of criticism, Victoria's Secret Fashion Show reconsidered its marketing strategy, which ultimately contributed to the end of the runway shows. The brand's focus changed to digital-platform marketing with the aim of restoring its reputation. Critics of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show considered it objectifying, lacking in diversity of body sizes, and repeatedly inclined towards offensive cultural appropriation with its designs.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The first fashion show, introduced by Stephanie Seymour, was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in August 1995. The show also featured Beverly Peele and Frederique van der Wal. The inaugural show occurred two months before The Limited, parent company of Victoria's Secret owner Intimate Brands, sold an initial public offering of a 16 percent stake in the company at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Supermodel Stephanie Seymour rang the closing bell at the NYSE as part of the publicity campaign after the event had been promoted by full page adds in the "Wall Street Journal". The subsequent three annual shows were also held at the Plaza Hotel.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 1999, during Super Bowl XXXIII, Victoria's Secret announced a 72-hour countdown to the webcast of their fashion show, which resulted in over 2 million viewers. Parent company Intimate Brands bought a $1.5 million, 30-second television advertisement during the Super Bowl broadcast and spent an additional $4 million on international newspaper publicity. The event, hosted by Broadcast.com, featured Tyra Banks, Laetitia Casta, Heidi Klum, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová, Inés Rivero, and Seymour. In 1999 and 2000, the show was broadcast live on the internet.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The May 2000 fashion show, held in France in sync with the Cannes Film Festival, was made with production help from Harvey Weinstein. The event raised $3.5 million for the Cinema Against AIDS charity.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2001 show, hosted by Rupert Everett, returned to New York City and was held at Bryant Park in the Valhalla structure, designed by Rudi Enos. All proceeds went towards the victims of the September 11 attacks. That year, the show made its broadcast debut on ABC, drawing millions of viewers as well as some controversy; the Federal Communications Commission received many complaints about the broadcast.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2004 show was canceled due to fallout from the Super Bowl halftime show controversy, an event known for accidental indecency with a "wardrobe malfunction". In place of the fashion show, the company sent the Angels (Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima, and Alessandra Ambrosio) on an "Angels Across America Tour" in 2004 to promote the brand through visit to four major cities: New York City, Miami, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Victoria's Secret sister brand PINK made its debut on the runway starting in 2006 and was regularly featured in a segment of the fashion show each year afterward.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2006 and 2007, the Victoria's Secret fashion shows were held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. On November 13, 2007, the company's Angels were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside the Kodak Theatre as part of a celebration to mark Victoria's Secret's 25th anniversary on Hollywood Boulevard. Justin Timberlake opened the show with his song "Sexy Back". This fashion show included the final walk of Gisele Bündchen.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2007 show featured a performance by the Spice Girls, the first American TV debut of the band's comeback. After Kanye West canceled his appearance, will.i.am was called to perform in his place.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2008 show coincided with the grand re-opening of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel and had Usher as a featured performer. Unlike the other shows, the runway was designed parallel with the audience seats.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2009, the fashion show returned to the Lexington Avenue Armory and featured the “Victoria's Secret Model Search”, a competition to find a new runway Angel with the winner announced as Kylie Bisutti.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2010 Victoria's Secret Fashion show aired on November 30, 2010, on CBS, and featured performances by Katy Perry and Akon. A promotional ad featured a lipdub for Katy Perry's "Firework". As of 2010, 152 models have walked the show.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2011, Kanye West started his song "Stronger" with a tribute to his mother who had died before his scheduled performance four years before, saying: "In 2007, I was supposed to perform this song on this show ...and I lost my superhero. Now she's my super-angel."


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2012, an outfit worn by model Karlie Kloss, which was reminiscent of Native American attire, sparked controversy due to its alleged stereotypical depiction of Native Americans, which amounted to cultural appropriation. Victoria's Secret released a statement of apology shortly after, saying that they will remove it from future advertisements and the broadcast. Kloss apologized on her Twitter account for the outfit and expressed her support for the outfit's removal in the broadcast.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show featured performances by Taylor Swift, A Great Big World, Neon Jungle, and Fall Out Boy. Swift performed "I Knew You Were Trouble", A Great Big World performed "Say Something", UK's Neon Jungle made their US television debut with "Trouble", and Fall Out Boy performed with Taylor Swift in "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" and later performed "The Phoenix".


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2014, the Victoria's Secret Fashion show featured performances by Taylor Swift; Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, and Hozier. Swift performed "Blank Space" and "Style". Ed Sheeran performed "Thinking Out Loud". Ariana Grande performed "Love Me Harder", "Bang Bang", "Break Free", and "Problem". Hozier performed "Take Me to Church". During the show, Ariana Grande was performing and was hit by accident by Elsa Hosk's wings.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2015, the show featured performances by The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, and Ellie Goulding. The Weeknd performed "In the Night" and "Can't Feel My Face" for the show, while Gomez performed a medley of "Hands to Myself" and "Me & My Girls" for the PINK segment. Goulding was contracted as a replacement for Rihanna, who had canceled her appearance just one week before the show in order to focus on recording her album Anti. Goulding performed "Army" and "Love Me Like You Do" for the show.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2016, the Victoria's Secret Fashion show featured performances by The Weeknd (performed "Starboy"), Lady Gaga (performed "Million Reasons", plus a medley of "A-Yo" and "John Wayne"), and Bruno Mars (performed "Chunky" for the Pink brand and "24k Magic" for the VS brand). The executive producer of Victoria's Secret, Ed Razek, chose Grand Palais in Paris, France, as the show's location. A major challenge faced with the show was the size of the building and how the show could be showcased on a small TV, as well as the natural lighting in the building, which would get in the way of the tradition of the show being held at night.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2017 show was held in Shanghai, China and was the first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to be held in Asia. The show featured the first-ever segment in collaboration with another brand, French fashion house Balmain. The theme and designs were co-steered by Victoria's Secret and Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing. Performers included Harry Styles (performed Kiwi and Only Angel), Miguel (performed Pineapple Skies and Told You So), Jane Zhang (performed a medley of Work For It, 808, and Dust My Shoulders Off), and Leslie Odom Jr. (performed Winter Song). A performance by Katy Perry was canceled due to her visa to travel to China being revoked. A week before the show was due to be filmed, model Gigi Hadid stated that she had been denied access to the show. Russian models were also reportedly denied visas for entry to China.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In November 2018, the company's chief of marketing Ed Razek was criticized for comments he made in an interview with "Vogue", suggesting that the fashion show did not cast trans women—whom he referred to using the now-rejected term "transsexuals"—because "the show is a fantasy". Razek apologized for the "insensitive" comments, noting that trans women have attempted to audition for the show in the past, but that "it was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are." Razek also faced criticism for similar comments regarding plus-size models, stating they had not attempted to do a show for them since 2000 since there was no viewer interest. Criticism of Razek for anachronistic and misogynistic business practices intensified, from both inside and outside the company, and he resigned in August 2019.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In May 2019, it was reported that L Brands CEO Les Wexner had issued a memo questioning the future of the show, stating that network television was no longer the "right fit", and that the company planned to focus on "developing exciting and dynamic content and a new kind of event." Viewership of the show had fallen from 9.2 million viewers in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2018. Victoria's Secret had also been experiencing an overall decline due to increasing competition, as well as changing perceptions to the company's marketing—which a retail analyst described as encouraging women to objectify themselves to "impress men".


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: On November 21, 2019, L Brands CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer officially confirmed that the 2019 fashion show had been canceled, citing its declining viewership and lack of immediate "material impact" on Victoria's Secret sales post-broadcast. He re-affirmed that Victoria's Secret was "figuring out how to advance the positioning of the brand and best communicate that to customers". The "New York Times" reported that the company was seeking to distance itself from the controversy following fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein sexual abuse scandal and Wexner's ties to Epstein. The last official broadcast of the Victoria's Secret Fashion show was in December 2018.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The wings were first introduced in the 1998 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. A consistent feature of each year's collection, wings were included as a part of some outfits. The idea to feature wings as part of the collection came in the wake of the immense success of the "Angels"-bra line, which was advertised with the models Tyra Banks, Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Pestova, and Stephanie Seymour wearing wings. The same models who were featured in the campaigns for the "Angel"-bra line, with the exception of Chandra North filling in the spot for Christensen, walked the runway with Angel wings on.. Over the years, the show featured various forms and sizes of wings, such as butterfly, peacock, or devil wings, which have become emblematic of the Victoria's Secret brand. The wings were, at times, ornamental back pieces worn by the models on the runway, with limited resemblance to traditional wings. Some models considered it an honor to wear the wings.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Adriana Lima has worn the most winged costumes in the history of the show. With her count of 24 sets of wings, she is followed by Candice Swanepoel who has worn 20 pair of wings.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The early webcasts were criticized for poor connection, and users that could connect were subjected to low video quality. One critic from "The New York Times" described the initial 20th-century webcast experience as having felt like he was "watching a striptease through a keyhole".


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Some critics have described the 21st-century televised editions of the show as pornographic, while others have described it as both "outright commercialism" and indistinguishable from an infomercial. The Federal Communications Commission has received complaints regarding the broadcast, but no fines have been imposed, with the FCC, following the 2001 airing, citing the First Amendment and stating that "sexual or excretory activities or organs in a patently offensive manner as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium" were not broadcast. In the initial 2001 airing ABC blurred the screen on particularly sheer lingerie. This enabled the show to pass muster with its internal Broadcast Standards and Practices department and to achieve a TV Parental Guidelines rating of TV-14 (a rating maintained for each broadcast presentation over the years), as a TV-MA rating is virtually unmarketable for advertisers on broadcast television. In 2002, the National Organization for Women protested the show calling it a "soft-core porn infomercial". They were joined in protest by the Parents Television Council and other watchdog organizations. Despite the program's timeslot and parental ratings, some affiliates have chosen not to air the program, including Fisher Communications' CBS stations in Boise and Idaho Falls, Idaho in the past. In 2009, the American Decency Association organized email letters of protests to sponsors of the show including AT&T, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Netflix, Nikon, and Reebok. CBS described the event as "the Super Bowl of fashion" in 2014.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Typically, one model is chosen among the Angels to wear a bejeweled bra dubbed the "Fantasy Bra". It was first advertised in the Victoria's Secret catalog, but since 2001 has been worn in the fashion shows. Prior to each fashion show, Victoria's Secret contracts a renowned jewelry designer to craft the bra to be used as a focal point for promoting the fashion show and as a centerpiece within it. However, only the centerpiece from the 2004 Heavenly "70" Fantasy Bra and the 2012 Floral Fantasy Bra and Gift Set have found a buyer. If not bought, the bras are usually dismantled after a year.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima have worn the Fantasy Bra in three different years. Gisele Bündchen, Tyra Banks, Karolína Kurková, and Alessandra Ambrosio have each worn two Fantasy Bras. Tyra Banks also wore the 1996 Million Dollar Miracle Bra during the 1999 fashion show. As of 2018, the fantasy bra has been worn 8 times by a Brazilian model, 5 times by an American model, 4 times by a German model, and 3 times by a Czech model.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The $15 million price tag for the 2000 bra worn by Gisele Bündchen earned a place in the "Guinness World Records" as the most expensive item of lingerie ever created. The $3 million 2009 Harlequin Fantasy Bra and the $2 million 2010 Bombshell Fantasy Bra were designed by Damiani. Listed below are the prices per set (including accessories for the 2007 and 2013 editions, the 2013 bra alone is worth $10,000,000.00. The 2012 Floral Fantasy Bra was accompanied by a $500,000 perfume bottle.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: In 2014, for the first time, two fantasy bras were created. They were worn by Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima and were valued at $2,000,000 each.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Since 2003, similar to the Fantasy Bra, one or more models are chosen to wear the "Swarovski Outfit" and the "Swarovski Wings" every year. The first Swarovski items that were shown on the runway were given to Alessandra Ambrosio. Victoria's Secret had worked with Swarovski for 9 years prior to the Swarovski items worn on the runway in 2011.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: Alessandra Ambrosio's Swarovski outfit, worn in 2011, included a 60-pound wing which was made out of 105,000 Swarovski crystals. The base of her wing was made out of 23-carat gold. Cameron Russell was given the "10th Anniversary" Swarovski outfit, worn in 2012, celebrating Victoria's Secret's 10th year working with Swarovski.


title: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

text: The 2013 Swarovski outfit was a 3D printed piece given to Lindsay Ellingson, which included mini-micro Swarovski crystals. In 2017, Elsa Hosk was chosen to wear the 15th Anniversary Swarovski outfit, which came out to a total value of $1,000,000.


title: Pink film

text: Some writers use the term 'pink film' for Japanese sex movies produced and distributed by smaller independent studios such as OP Eiga, Shintōhō Eiga, Kokuei and Xces. In this narrower sense, Nikkatsu's "Roman Porno" series, Toei Company's "Pinky Violence" series and the Tokatsu films distributed by Shochiku would not be included as these studios have much larger distribution networks.


title: Pink film

text: Until the early 2000s, they were almost exclusively shot on 35mm film. Recently, filmmakers have increasingly used video (while retaining their emphasis on soft-core narrative). Many theaters swapped 35mm for video projectors and began relying on old videos to meet the demand of triple-feature showings.


title: Pink film

text: Pink films became wildly popular in the mid-1960s and dominated the Japanese domestic cinema through the mid-1980s. In the 1960s, the pink films were largely the product of small, independent studios. Around 1970, the major studio Nikkatsu started focusing almost exclusively on erotic content, but Toei, another major film production company, started producing a line of what came to be known as Pinky Violence films. With their access to higher production values and talent, some of these films became critical and popular successes. Though the appearance of the adult video led viewers to move away from pink film in the 1980s, films in this genre are still being produced.


title: Pink film

text: The "pink film", or "eroduction" (erotic production) as it was first called, is a cinematic genre without an exact equivalent in the West. Though called pornography, the terms "erotica", "soft porn" and "sexploitation" have been suggested as more appropriate, although none of these precisely matches the pink film genre.


title: Pink film

text: The Japanese film ethics board Eirin has long enforced a ban on the display of genitals and pubic hair. This restriction forced Japanese filmmakers to develop sometimes elaborate means of avoiding showing the "working parts", as American film historian Donald Richie puts it. He wrote:


title: Pink film

text: To work around this censorship, most Japanese directors positioned props—lamps, candles, bottles, etc.—at strategic locations to block the banned body parts. When this was not done, the most common alternative techniques are digital scrambling, covering the prohibited area with a black box or a fuzzy white spot, known as a mosaic or "fogging".


title: Pink film

text: Some have claimed that it is this censorship that gives the Japanese erotic cinema its particular style. Richie wrote:


title: Pink film

text: Richie makes a distinction between the erotic films of the major studios such as Nikkatsu and Toei as against the low-budget pink films produced by independents such as OP Eiga.


title: Pink film

text: Contrasting the pink film with Western pornographic films, Pia Harritz says, "What really stands out is the ability of pinku eiga to engage the spectator in more than just scenes with close-ups of genitals and finally the complexity in the representation of gender and the human mind."


title: Pink film

text: In the years since the end of World War II, eroticism had been gradually making its way into Japanese cinema. The first kiss to be seen in Japanese film—discreetly half-hidden by an umbrella—caused a national sensation in 1946. Although throughout the 1940s and early 1950s nudity in Japanese movie theaters, as in most of the world, was a taboo, some films from the mid-50s such as Shintoho's female pearl-diver films starring buxom Michiko Maeda, began showing more flesh than would have previously been imaginable in the Japanese cinema. During the same period, the "taiyozoku" films on the teen-age "Sun Tribe", such as Kō Nakahira's "Crazed Fruit" (1956), introduced unprecedented sexual frankness into Japanese films.


title: Pink film

text: Foreign films of this time, such as Ingmar Bergman's "Summer with Monika" (1953), Louis Malle's "Amants" (1958), and Russ Meyer's "Immoral Mr. Teas" (1959) introduced female nudity into international cinema, and were imported to Japan without problem. Nevertheless, until the early 1960s, graphic depictions of nudity and sex in Japanese film could only be seen in single-reel "stag films," made by film producers such as those depicted in Imamura's film "The Pornographers" (1966).


title: Pink film

text: The first wave of the pink film in Japan was contemporary with the similar U.S. sexploitation film genres, the "nudie-cuties" and "roughies". Nudity and sex officially entered Japanese cinema with Satoru Kobayashi's controversial and popular independent production "Flesh Market" ("Nikutai no Ichiba", 1962), which is considered the first true pink film. Made for 8 million yen, Kobayashi's independent feature film took in over 100 million yen. Kobayashi remained active in directing pink films until the 1990s. Tamaki Katori, the star of the film, went on to become one of the leading early pink film stars, appearing in over 600, and earning the title "Pink Princess".


title: Pink film

text: In 1964, maverick kabuki, theater and film director Tetsuji Takechi directed "Daydream", a big-budget film distributed by the major studio Shochiku. Takechi's "Black Snow" (1965), resulted in the director's arrest on charges of obscenity and a high-profile trial, which became a major battle between Japan's intellectuals and the establishment. Takechi won the lawsuit, and the publicity surrounding the trial helped bring about a boom in the production of pink films.


title: Pink film

text: In her introduction to the Weisser's "Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films", actress Naomi Tani calls this period in "pink film" production "The Age of Competition". Though Japan's major studios, such as Nikkatsu and Shochiku made occasional forays into erotica in the 1960s, such as director Seijun Suzuki's "Gate of Flesh" (1964)—the first mainstream Japanese film to contain nudity, the majority of erotic films were made by the independents. Independent studios such as Nihon Cinema and World Eiga made dozens of cheap, profitable "eroductions". Among the most influential independent studios producing "pink films" in this era were Shintōhō Eiga (the second studio to use this name), Million Film, Kantō, and Ōkura. Typically shown on a three-film program, these films were made by these companies to show at their own chain of specialty theaters.


title: Pink film

text: Another major "pink film" studio, Wakamatsu Studios, was formed by director Kōji Wakamatsu in 1965, after quitting Nikkatsu. Known as "The Pink Godfather", and called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film genre", Wakamatsu's independent productions are critically respected works usually concerned with sex and extreme violence mixed with political messages. His most controversial early films dealing with misogyny and sadism are "The Embryo Hunts In Secret" (1966), "Violated Angels" (1967), and "Go, Go Second Time Virgin" (1969).


title: Pink film

text: Three other important "pink film" directors of this time, Kan Mukai, Kin'ya Ogawa and Shin'ya Yamamoto (director) are known as "The Heroes of the First Wave". In 1965, the same year as Wakamatsu became independent, directors Kan Mukai and Giichi Nishihara established their own production companies—Mukai Productions and Aoi Eiga.


title: Pink film

text: The "first queen of Japanese sex movies" was Noriko Tatsumi, who made films at World Eiga and Nihon Cinema with director Kōji Seki. Other major Sex Queens of the first wave of "pink film" included Setsuko Ogawa, Mari Iwai, Keiko Kayama, and Miki Hayashi. Other "pink film" stars of the era include Tamaki Katori, who appeared in many films for Giichi Nishihara and Kōji Wakamatsu; Kemi Ichiboshi, whose specialty was playing the role of a violated innocent; and Mari Nagisa. Younger starlets like Naomi Tani, and Kazuko Shirakawa were starting their careers and already making names for themselves in the "pink film" industry, but are best remembered today for their work with Nikkatsu during the 1970s.


title: Pink film

text: Until the late 1960s, the "pink film" market was almost entirely the domain of low-budget independent companies. At the beginning of the 1970s, now losing their audiences to television and imported American films, Japan's major film studios were struggling for survival. In 1972, Richie reported, "In Japan, the eroduction is the only type of picture that retains an assured patronage."


title: Pink film

text: To tap into this lucrative audience, major studio Toei entered the sexploitation market in 1971. In films like his ero-guro series and "Joys of Torture" series of the late 1960s director Teruo Ishii provided a model for Toei's sexploitation ventures by "establishing a queasy mix of comedy and torture." Producer Kanji Amao designed a group of series—"shigeki rosen" (Sensational Line), "ijoseiai rosen" (Abnormal Line), and "harenchi rosen" (Shameless Line), today collectively referred to as Toei's "Pinky Violence". Most of Toei's films in this style used eroticism in conjunction with violent and action-filled stories. Several of these films have the theme of strong women exacting violent revenge for past injustices. The series was launched with the "Delinquent Girl Boss" ("Zubeko Bancho") films starring Reiko Oshida. Other series in the "Pinky Violence" genre included Norifumi Suzuki's "Girl Boss" ("Sukeban") films, and the "Terrifying Girls' High School" films, both starring Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto.


title: Pink film

text: Other examples of Toei's films in this genre include Shunya Ito's "Sasori" (Scorpion) series of women in prison films based on Toru Shinohara's manga. Starting with "" (1972), the "Scorpion" series starred Meiko Kaji, who had left Nikkatsu Studios to distance herself from their "Roman Porno" series. Toei also set the standard for Japanese nunsploitation films (a subgenre imported from Italy) with the critically acclaimed "School of the Holy Beast" (1974) directed by Norifumi Suzuki. Toei also produced a whole series of erotic samurai pictures such as "Bohachi Bushido: Clan of the Forgotten Eight" (Bōhachi Bushidō: Poruno Jidaigeki) (1973).


title: Pink film

text: In 1971 Takashi Itamochi, president of Nikkatsu, Japan's oldest major film studio, decided to stop his own company's involvement with action films and start making sexploitation films. Like Toei, Nikkatsu had made some previous films in the sexploitation market, such as "Story of Heresy in Meiji Era" (1968) and "Tokyo Bathhouse" (1968), which featured over 30 sex-film stars in cameo appearances. Nikkatsu launched its "Roman Porno" series in November 1971 with "", starring Kazuko Shirakawa. The film became a huge hit, inspired 20 sequels within seven years, established Shirakawa as Nikkatsu's first "Queen", and successfully launched the high-profile "Roman porno" series. Director Masaru Konuma says that the process of making Roman Porno was the same as that of making a pink film except for the higher budget. Nikkatsu made these higher-quality pink films almost exclusively, at an average rate of three per month, for the next 17 years.


title: Pink film

text: Nikkatsu gave its "Roman porno" directors a great deal of artistic freedom in creating their films, as long as they met the official minimum quota of four nude or sex scenes per hour. The result was a series that was popular both with audiences and with critics. One or two "Roman Pornos" appeared on the top-ten lists of Japanese critics every year throughout the run of the series. Nikkatsu's higher-quality sex films essentially took the pink film market away from the smaller, independent studios until the mid-1980s, when adult videos began to lure away much of the pink film's clientele.


title: Pink film

text: Tatsumi Kumashiro was one of the major directors of the "Roman Porno". Kumashiro directed a string of financial and critical hits unprecedented in Japanese cinematic history, including "Ichijo's Wet Desire" (1972) and "Woman with Red Hair" (1979), starring Junko Miyashita. He became known as the "King of Nikkatsu "Roman porno"" Noboru Tanaka, director of "A Woman Called Sada Abe" (1975), is judged by many critics today to have been the best of Nikkatsu's "Roman Porno" directors. The S&M subgenre of the "Roman Porno" was established in 1974 when the studio hired Naomi Tani to star in "Flower and Snake" (based on an Oniroku Dan novel), and "Wife to be Sacrificed", both directed by Masaru Konuma. Tani's immense popularity established her as Nikkatsu's third "Roman Porno" Queen, and the first of their S&M Queens.


title: Pink film

text: Tani was also directed by the important director Shôgorô Nishimura in titles that became classics, such as "Rope Cosmetology" (1978).


title: Pink film

text: Other subgenres of the pink film developed under the "Roman Porno" line included "Violent Pink", established in 1976 by director Yasuharu Hasebe.