Lottery is a bit crap

Lottery is a bit crap

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Rich_W

Original Poster:

12,548 posts

211 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Just a random one.

Last night was a rollover.

3 people won. I was not one of them. But the total jackpot was a shade over £3.5M Hence the winners getting £1.2 each. I remember the first rollovers being huge. (Google says first rollover was £17M) But even the more regular ones in the last couple years were in the £8-10M region. Don't get me wrong. £1M is a nice amount. Pay off your mortgage put the rest away for rainy days/additional income. Wouldn't turn it down of course. How long till a Lotto jackpot is less than £1M?

Personally I can see a time when the normal Lotto is binned for good. Let alone the other games they run. (Thunderball and HotPicks) and only Euromillions and scratchcards are left.

With the Euros offering comically large wins for the same price ticket. Can Camelot ever reverse this slide?

(No I don't work for them. This is not market research biggrin)

Jimmy No Hands

5,007 posts

155 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
They might cost the same price, but the odds on winning the National Lottery is about 1 in 14 million versus the 1 in 116 million for the Euros.


Apparently.



Edit: I live up north, I could retire off of £1m hehe

RWA441

703 posts

223 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Even worse than that, I got 4 numbers on Wednesday £120 smile Got 3 last night woohoo! £25 smile
If I had got 4 last night it was still only £25 (Unless it was an error on the prize page on my App) now that would piss you off furious

Rich_W

Original Poster:

12,548 posts

211 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
Jimmy No Hands said:
They might cost the same price, but the odds on winning the National Lottery is about 1 in 14 million versus the 1 in 116 million for the Euros.


Apparently.



Edit: I live up north, I could retire off of £1m hehe
You're right on the odds. But people will always gravitate towards the larger amount. Do they need to reduce the charity chunk of the ticket to get the jackpots much higher? Or is the money simply not there?

hidetheelephants

23,772 posts

192 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
Presumably Beardy is going to pop up again and promise to do a better job than Camelot and take no profit at the same time? When does the franchise expire?

Mr Trophy

6,808 posts

202 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Someone was telling me ( a taxi driver in London ) that if you don't go public after winning, you get the money split yearly, until full amount is paid. Anyone know if this is bullst?

zeduffman

4,054 posts

150 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
I know a lot of people that were put off by the ticket price rise on the normal lottery. I think those that haven't migrated to Euromillions went to Thunderball (1 in 8 million for £500k, for £1), or quit playing altogether.

Edited by zeduffman on Sunday 11th May 21:33

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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As odd as it sounds, I'd rather have a lower chance of winning 20m plus than 1m....

Pork

9,453 posts

233 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
Mr Trophy said:
Someone was telling me ( a taxi driver in London ) that if you don't go public after winning, you get the money split yearly, until full amount is paid. Anyone know if this is bullst?
Must be true, a cabby said. hehe

No, it's not true.

Phil Dicky

7,162 posts

262 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
Mr Trophy said:
Someone was telling me ( a taxi driver in London ) that if you don't go public after winning, you get the money split yearly, until full amount is paid. Anyone know if this is bullst?
Bullst....going public gets you Camelot backing and their financial advice foc.

Pork

9,453 posts

233 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
IMO they made a mistake making the lowest prize £25. The reason the rollover jackpot was so low last night was so many 3-ball winners.

Speaking for myself, I don't play the lottery to win £25 and it was a step backwards putting at that value. It decreases the jackpot, the attraction of a lottery, surely? If I wanted to win £25 I'd get much better odds at the bookies.

vescaegg

25,489 posts

166 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Well I knew the guy who recently won £108m so I definitely won't ever win now! No way two people who have known each other would ever win! hehe

meteorgt2

81 posts

141 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
I too remember when the original Jackpots and roll overs were huge.

Is it that less people are playing or is camelot taking more off the top making the jackpots less?

Pork

9,453 posts

233 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
meteorgt2 said:
I too remember when the original Jackpots and roll overs were huge.

Is it that less people are playing or is camelot taking more off the top making the jackpots less?
Prizes are a fixed percentage of whatever is left after the 3 number winners have been paid. Upping that to £25 has killed the bigger prizes.

meteorgt2

81 posts

141 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
quotequote all
Pork said:
Prizes are a fixed percentage of whatever is left after the 3 number winners have been paid. Upping that to £25 has killed the bigger prizes.
Do you know if the percentages have remained the same since the lotterys launch?

And I mean the percentage that goes into the price pool vrs camelots pocket and good causes?

Thanks

redtwin

7,518 posts

181 months

Monday 12th May 2014
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meteorgt2 said:
I too remember when the original Jackpots and roll overs were huge.

Is it that less people are playing or is camelot taking more off the top making the jackpots less?
I vote for less people playing mainly because I haven't bothered since the entry price doubled. I have heard of others doing the same which of course makes it my opinion fact.

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

218 months

Monday 12th May 2014
quotequote all
Pork said:
IMO they made a mistake making the lowest prize £25. The reason the rollover jackpot was so low last night was so many 3-ball winners.

Speaking for myself, I don't play the lottery to win £25 and it was a step backwards putting at that value. It decreases the jackpot, the attraction of a lottery, surely? If I wanted to win £25 I'd get much better odds at the bookies.
Yep - this.

I play because its relatively little money for an outside chance of winning a massive amount. I dont really care about the odd £10 (or £25 as it is now).

The problem is, if they scrapped the 3 ball prize, I bet many more people would stop playing. The three ball prize is in some cases the only win people will ever get on the lottery. I think in 20 years of playing I have only had a 4 ball win 2 or 3 times. It's the three ball prize that keeps people hooked IMO.

bigandclever

13,750 posts

237 months

Monday 12th May 2014
quotequote all
Rich_W said:
How long till a Lotto jackpot is less than £1M?
In 1995, 133 people shared the £16 million jackpot, and that was a Rollover too.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 12th May 2014
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Phil Dicky said:
Bullst....going public gets you Camelot backing and their financial advice foc.
Surely they offer the advice whatever?

TTmonkey

20,911 posts

246 months

Monday 12th May 2014
quotequote all
Interesting draw this weekend. Estimated rollover was advertised as 5.5 million. However, with all the numbers being so low, all 17 or below, the normal prize allotment was seriously squewed.

Normally around 250,000 people win the lowest prize, so the portion of the lowest prize fund is usually about £6million. However, nearly 450,000 won the low prize this weekend, so the only fixed portion of the prize jumped to a massive £11million. Hence the other prizes (which are a proportion of whats left from the pot) suffered as a result.

Match 4 was also won by about 3x the usual number, (30000, instead of around 10000)

Match 5 was won by 700 people, usually around 200 win it.

Its quite frankly surprising that only 5 people won the bonus ball and only 3 won the jackpot. Given that 700 got 5 numbers then I would have expected 30+ bonus ball winners and at least 15 jackpot winners. If that had happened the prize fund would have been devestatingly low.