But if you consider the amount of money that's been handed out since then, it's difficult to argue it hasn't made a difference.

More than £20bn has been raised with over 280,000 grants awarded to sport, arts, heritage and environmental projects up and down the country, with 28 pence from every pound spent by the public going to
good causes.

Since it was set up in 2004, the Big Lottery Fund – the largest of the National Lottery distributors – has been providing grants
to an array of projects and charitable causes.

In Yorkshire alone, more than £593m has been awarded to 16,500 projects by the Big Lottery fund and its predecessors, including £3.9m towards the new John Smeaton Leisure Centre, in Leeds; £2.7m for an art and sports facility at Kelvin Hall School, in Hull, and £1.5m to transform Bradford's
decaying Edwardian Manningham Library into a thriving community centre.

Peter Wanless, the Big Lottery Fund's chief executive, says lottery cash has undoubtedly helped improve the lives of ordinary people.

"What I think is special about this money is it gives communities the chance to make a difference to the quality of life in their area.
It's their ideas and their proposals, whether it's renovating a village hall, or transforming no-go areas into green spaces."

Wanless, a Leeds University graduate, spent more than a decade in the civil service, working as a private secretary to three Cabinet ministers, before taking on his present role earlier this year. And even in this short space of time he's seen the impact lottery funding can have.

"It makes a big difference when the projects come from local communities rather than being rolled out by Whitehall, because it creates a real sense of pride."

The Big Lottery Fund runs various programmes to help ensure the money being dished out reaches as many different projects as possible.

But who decides which projects get the green light? Wanless says that smaller grants schemes like Awards for All, which provides anything from £300 to £10,000 to good causes, are decided by specialist teams, while bigger applications are usually decided by committees made up of board members
who assess the overall value and likely benefit to the community in question.

"We take a lot of factors into account, like what value it will bring, who benefits and how will it make a specific difference to people's lives, whether it's a new sports centre or a public park."

One of the most popular programmes run by the Big Lottery Fund, alongside ITV, is the People's Millions scheme which allows the public to vote on projects in their region which they feel deserve to be awarded
a grant.

"It captures the imagination of people and a lot of groups who perhaps would never have thought about applying for lottery money in the past
have been inspired to do so,"
says Wanless.

But with so many people going after what is still a finite, albeit huge, pot of money, some will end up disappointed. Around 45 per cent of Awards for All scheme applications receive funding, whereas only around one in eight Reaching Communities projects receive any cash.

"It's a problem for us because there are many more fantastic projects out there than we have money to support," admits Wanless.

"When I took on this job, I thought what could be more enjoyable than handing out money but it's frustrating because you can't help everyone. We've handed out nearly £600m but we've had £8bn in potential applications."

The Big Lottery Fund runs both "open" funding schemes, where individuals and communities can submit applications for a wide range
of ideas, as well as targeted schemes, aimed, for instance, specifically at deprived areas, or projects involving children.

Not surprisingly, Wanless disagrees that the National Lottery is a way of exploiting those on lower incomes. "There are some fantastic projects that we have been able to help that have made a big difference to people's quality of life. The poor and those most vulnerable in society are benefiting to a considerable extent from the money the lottery is raising," he says.

"I go up and down the country and visit these wonderful projects run by incredibly committed people and yet we rarely hear about them because good news doesn't usually sell newspapers."

He says without lottery money many projects simply wouldn't have got off the ground. "There would be a lot of community groups and voluntary sector organisations which would find it impossible to run and a lot of great dreams and ideas wouldn't have become reality, so without lottery money there would be 188 fewer high-quality sports facilities across the region."

But while few would disagree that lottery cash has made a difference to many communities, a lot of people are concerned that London's 2012 Olympics will swallow up this money over next four years, at the expense of vital projects outside the capital.

Last year, the Government announced that £425m of Big Lottery Fund cash was being re-directed to support the Olympics and Wanless admits this will have an impact.

"Some money has been taken from the Big Lottery Fund and put towards the Olympics, there's no point denying that, but we have fought hard to protect the money going to the voluntary and community sector," he says.

"Will it make a difference? Of course it will, it's money we would otherwise have had. But once the Olympics is over then we will get that
money back.

"It's going to be a challenging period for organisations looking to get funding, but on the other hand, there will still be considerable amounts of money available, we just have to make the most of it."

Wanless says the Big Lottery Fund is important because it supports projects that people really want. "We fund projects that can't get funding elsewhere and I would like to think we will keep helping
those who need it most, people in the community that are left behind, for whatever reasons," he says.

"And the way in which we fund our projects is not only successful, but hopefully demonstrates to others that what they previously thought was impossible, is actually possible."