The Top Woman In The Lottery Tells Us 3 Things We Should Remember After The Win

March 19, 2015 Ken Silver

After 14 years Diane Thompson left her role as the head of Camelot Lottery and set up a resturant. Video: The Telegraph

The former chief executive who has seen over 3,700 millionaires made by the UK National Lottery and Euromillions tells you what to do after you've won.

Thompson, 65, joined Camelot as marketing director in 1997 to help the company fight a slump.

Diane Thompson (centre) is seen here with the money raised for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games from sales of specially-designated lottery games.

Her tips from experience watching thousands of millionaires win are:

1. Take your time.
If you ever win the Lottery, keep your mouth shut and go away, says the woman who has been running it since 2000.

"You’ve got to take time to get your head around it," Dianne Thompson told The Telegraph, "so don’t declare you’re going to buy Granny a yacht just yet."

"Don’t make any promises to start with," she says. "It’s all too easy to say 'I’ll give some to you, and some to you…’ If you can, we advise that you go away for a few days or a couple of weeks, just to get used to the idea."

2. Get financial and legal advice.
Dianne says in the UK while the win is tax-free, realise you’ve got to pay tax on the interest you earn.

3. When you win, give something back.
When you have sat back and thought about it – be as generous as you can. "Ray and Barbara Wragg from Sheffield won £7.4 million. They have given more than £5 million away. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do that?"

She is frustrated that only one in five winners goes public and the identities of the rest are protected in law, as it means she cannot tell us what most do with their winnings.

"But I can tell you the amount that goes back into charities is phenomenal."

As an employee she has been banned from playing all these years, so is she going to start when she leaves Camelot? "Too right I am! We have four million winners a week, on average. It could be me."