It is almost 30 years since the first televised national lottery draw, an anniversary that will fall just before the divvying up of the next round of elite sport lottery funding at the end of the year.
Discussions over who gets what from UK Sport are currently under way in the Olympic after-wash, a process trailed over the summer by the slightly nauseating sight of victorious British athletes routinely giving a shout out to “all the lottery players back home”, essentially thanking losing gamblers, scratchcard addicts and the poor for buying them a canoe.
