STAFF at a Blackburn games firm will help 25 lucky people wake up as millionaires on the dawn of the new millennium.

Media games specialists Europrint helped design the National Lottery's game for New Year's Eve, which the organisers claim will be the biggest lottery the world has ever seen. Camelot approached Europrint last year and asked the Preston New Road firm to come up with ideas for a special game to mark the new millennium.

"They wanted our expertise on designing games and on working out the mathematics involved," said director Andrew Gray.

And the firm's idea for a game, based on years of the century, went down a storm with Camelot. Tickets will go on sale for the game - named Big Draw 2000 - on Monday.

Players will have a one in 36 chance of winning a prize and a one in a million chance of scooping the big £1 million prize.

The one-off draw will see an estimated jackpot of £10 million in the first game when players will be asked to pick six dates from the last 100 years.

Each ticket holder will then automatically be given two further random dates - one from the outgoing millennium and one from the new.

The ticket holders who see their two days come up in the second game will find themselves £1 million richer.

The two draws will be broadcast live on BBC either side of midnight.

The Big Draw 2000 will be accompanied by a £3 million advertising campaign over the next nine weeks and Europrint is also heavily involved in helping orgniasing promotional activities. "Its obviously a real feather in our cap to be involved in such a high profile game and we're all delighted," said Mr Gray.

Camelot is hoping the £5 tickets will become one of this year's favourite Christmas presents.

Ticket-holders who match four years and the bonus year are predicted to win £100,000 and the scale goes down to the £40 winners which Camelot says players have got a one in 40 chance of becoming.

Game two, drawn at half-past midnight - as the millennium is seen in - has a guaranteed £1 million prize for people who see both their Millennium years come up.

Europrint, which employs more than 40 people at its Blackburn headquarters and Altham printing plant, is the firm behind dozens of newspaper and televison-based games across the world.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.