National Lottery changes

[MD5]

I'm loving the spin on the changes coming up in October, from when they will use an extra ten numbers; "More numbers to choose from" - yay!

I don't know how that will decrease the odds of winning, I've read by about a factor of three, at about 45 million to one, but there are other "benefits" to keep people's hopes up.

When they brought in the second (Wednesday) draw, I stopped doing the same numbers, and when they doubled the price, I stopped buying them altogether, apart from the odd rollover day.

What do you guys think about getting 6 numbers out of 59? Will you still buy regularly?

Whoops, I forgot about the poll aspect - is it too late to set it up for a poll please, mods?

 

[renault12ts]

The decrease in likelihood of matching the numbers will be exponential...they will collect less money, but pay out fewer prizes.

 

[Teflonso]

Brilliant idea. The lottery is dying on its feet as top prizes fall and more people get hacked off about the charity component getting spent on elitism like the national opera house. You can't even buy a decent second hand jet or turbine helicopter for the price of a typical jackpot.

I plan to not bother with a bet until the jackpot gets north of £40M. Then I'll have a tickle. The odds of winning remains they were at £4M, so all the mugs will have got in during the early rounds and contributed the bulk of my winnings.

It beats betting money on Euromillions for all those Johnny Foreigner types to win.

.

 

[Alfie]

Odds of winning change from something like 14 million to one to 45 million to one I believe.

I will still do it but wont increase my stake.

 

[MD5]

The decrease in likelihood of matching the numbers will be exponential...they will collect less money, but pay out fewer prizes.

Exactly - if you've had the same numbers, you've had to double your outlay twice, and now they're reducing the odds even more. Always cynically well calculated though.

 

[tec]

I spend a tenner a week and never win anything.

I wonder how much the big winners spend on tickets? Hundreds or thousands each week?


Also I do the Postcode Lottery which is also a waste of money, and am about to cancel.

 

[AMGeed]

Also I do the Postcode Lottery which is also a waste of money, and am about to cancel.

I did that for about a year. What a foolish idea that was
Good luck trying to cancel

As for the regular National Lottery, I haven't wasted any money on that, including rollovers and the Euro one for about 10 years.
Like gambling, I found I was losing a lot more than ever winning so knocked that on the head for good.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I sometimes buy Thunderball tickets and Euro millions too, I win quite regularly on the Thunderball and the Euros but it's the big prize that's the seller; why spend £2 on a 'standard' lottery ticket to win £2m when the same priced ticket could (yes, yes, could) win you £100m?

 

[tec]

I did that for about a year. What a foolish idea that was
Good luck trying to cancel

Cancelled my payments now via Paypal, and phoned them up to confirm.

I was given the hard sell treatment on how they are increasing the number of prizes, and so on..

 

[AMGeed]

Cancelled my payments now via Paypal, and phoned them up to confirm.

I was given the hard sell treatment on how they are increasing the number of prizes, and so on..

I got that too. Had to cancel my direct debit in the end as they carried on taking payments after I rang them to cancel. My fault, I should have cancelled at the same time.

 

[Scott_F]

The National Lottery - a voluntary tax on the poor.