All Change on the National Lottery

[snuffy]

https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/lotto-direct-de...

2 draws now on a Wednesday and Saturday; and reduced prizes.....hmmm....

[snuffy]

[AndrewT1275]

snuffy said:

I'm an old git and have been doing the lottery since it first started. This is actually better than back then and before they doubled the price of a ticket.

The first ever draw cost £1 and the prizes for 3 balls and up were £10, £32, £528, £46,349 then the jackpot.

Now they have turned it into 2 draws per ticket the £1 cost per draw is now fixed at £10, £50, £1,000, £1,000,000 then the jackpot. This is better than historically except for maybe the jackpot which is now spread across 2 draws. So unless you get all 6 numbers this is actually a better average return than it has been before. More smaller prizes at maybe the expense of the jackpot.

[Puggit]

Just been having an interesting chat with ChatGPT - apparently revenue in the NL has only recently peaked (during Covid). My assumption was the lottery was dying a long slow death since the early days, but the numbers say differently.

[Saleen836]

AndrewT1275 said:

snuffy said:

I'm an old git and have been doing the lottery since it first started. This is actually better than back then and before they doubled the price of a ticket.

The first ever draw cost £1 and the prizes for 3 balls and up were £10, £32, £528, £46,349 then the jackpot.

Now they have turned it into 2 draws per ticket the £1 cost per draw is now fixed at £10, £50, £1,000, £1,000,000 then the jackpot. This is better than historically except for maybe the jackpot which is now spread across 2 draws. So unless you get all 6 numbers this is actually a better average return than it has been before. More smaller prizes at maybe the expense of the jackpot.

Better since they added a further 10 numbers reducing the odds of winning?

[snuffy]

AndrewT1275 said:

I'm an old git and have been doing the lottery since it first started. This is actually better than back then and before they doubled the price of a ticket.

The first ever draw cost £1 and the prizes for 3 balls and up were £10, £32, £528, £46,349 then the jackpot.

Now they have turned it into 2 draws per ticket the £1 cost per draw is now fixed at £10, £50, £1,000, £1,000,000 then the jackpot. This is better than historically except for maybe the jackpot which is now spread across 2 draws. So unless you get all 6 numbers this is actually a better average return than it has been before. More smaller prizes at maybe the expense of the jackpot.

I too am an old git and have done from day 1.

You are right; when it started it was £10 for 3, and then all the others were variable depending on the number of winners. And the 4 or 5 and 5+1 where often very poor, certainly less than they are now fixed at (£140 and so on).

So I suppose what they have done is almost go back to the way it was right when it started (certainly for £10 for 3), when it was £1 a go, but so as not to got back to £1 a go, they have come up with the idea of having two draws for £2 instead of one draw for £1.

[languagetimothy]

I haven't played the NL for a very long time. I do the Euromillions (including of course PH)

the problem I have with both of these is the prize levels, mainly the NL because of my experience a good couple of decades ago:

on some regular lines I got 4+2 so, six of the seven numbers! . wow good eh? no, not really it was about 1800 quid. the jackpot was won by someone who got all seven which at the time was around 32 million.

that's a hell of a prize disparity, the same as it looks today. look at the last Fridays draw prize. main 5 plus 1 bonus gives 182K but "my" prize for 4+2 would have been 940 quid yet we both had six balls.

my argument (mainly because of this experience) is the jackpot should be less and other prizes more useful..my six out of seven balls for 1800 quid is very poor.

I also think more people would play if the other prize levels were more useful, I include Euromillions in that . some might say but the jackpot is "only" 10 million, yeah but your chances of winning 30K or 150K are considerably higher than they were

blah blah, moan, sulk, etc.,

Edited by languagetimothy on Tuesday 14th April 15:18

[snuffy]

languagetimothy said:

that's a hell of a prize disparity, the same as it looks today. look at the last Fridays draw prize. main 5 plus 1 bonus gives 182K but "my" prize for 4+2 would have been 940 quid yet we both had six balls.

2 or 3 weeks ago, my missus got 4+1 on the EM and won £95. 5+1 was £135k.

And I once had 4 on the EM and got about £75, but I'm sure the percentages have been changed, so now you need 4+1 to pay the same as just getting 4.

It's really all or nothing as you say. At least on the NL, for 5 plus the bonus is £1m, whereas before it was nowhere near that, maybe in high tens of thousands. So that is better.

I did get £30 this Saturday !

But I used to think a lucky dip for 2 number was an insult, it's not worth having, it's like they are taking the piss. But now, a quid for 2? That really is an insult - half a ticket (indeed, it's half a lucky dip).

[BunkMoreland]

snuffy said:

https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/lotto-direct-de...

2 draws now on a Wednesday and Saturday; and reduced prizes.....hmmm....

I've read that link several times, I accept I'm not a Rocket scientist. But I dont understand the changes. Or what's the point?

Currently If you get all 6, you win the jackpot. If no one wins, it rolls over to the next draw (until 5 rollovers then "must be won" kicks in)

Under the new rules. If you get the 6 you win, but then they STILL do the 2nd draw and in theory someone could also win that draw. And then you both share the jackpot despite choosing 6 different numbers.

We all know that the chances of 2 (or 10) people winning the jackpot was possible if they by chance chose the same numbers. But this seems almost designed to reduce individual winnings if you do get the 6. But increase the number of winners of the jackpots.

Imagine if we ran the 100m Olympic final and Athlete X wins. But then they run the event again and athlete Y wins. And therefore they give them both a Gold medal. Its nonsense! First to win matters!

I cut back on the Lotto after playing it for years when they went to 59 balls. I doubt I will bother again when they introduce this in June. Chances are you will only win the jackpot once in your life. And I imagine most players want to be able to retire and live comfortably. So you want to win as much as possible.

I imagine I'm not the only person who will quit.

The reason Lotto sales are declining is because Euromillions exists. £20M, £60m £160m is a MASSIVE pull. Very few of us need that much obviously, but worse problems to have

Seems Allwyn dont understand that the bigger the jackpot the more players you get, even if the odds are significantly worse. So reducing the potential jackpot by HALF by doing twice as many draws, is literally the fastest way to kill the interest. It will be only the most addicted gamblers that continue to chase it

Edited by BunkMoreland on Thursday 16th April 21:08

[Blue_star]

I am trying to wrap my head around this. Does my ticket get 2 chances in any case or only if I have a minimum of 1 balls matched?

If first option, then they basically reduced price of playing without reducing price of playing. This might be in anticipation of the power ball starting soon. Also would mean thunderball might be binned. New pyramid of sorts

[snuffy]

Blue_star said:

I am trying to wrap my head around this. Does my ticket get 2 chances in any case or only if I have a minimum of 1 balls matched?

If first option, then they basically reduced price of playing without reducing price of playing. This might be in anticipation of the power ball starting soon. Also would mean thunderball might be binned. New pyramid of sorts

Your 6 numbers get entered into 2 draws on the same night. You only pick 1 set of 6, and they get used in both draws. They are independent draws, with the prizes the same for each draw. They are not connected. Apart from the Jackpot figure.

Think of it like this: It's £1 per entry, but it's £1 in draw one, and £1 in draw two, and you must enter both draws, so it's still £2.

[BunkMoreland]

Blue_star said:

..This might be in anticipation of the power ball starting soon....

The plan is that you will buy a £4 ticket in the UK for one of the Powerball draws. They have draws 3 times a week.

I see it being initially popular but I doubt it will last.

1) It rolls over even more than Euromillions does. Hence why we get the daft figures of $2billion+. That will get wearing when people play and it doesn't get won for 33 weeks or more!

2) AFAICS you'll be subject to Powerball rules. So you'll be paying a ton of Tax. Cant see American players being happy if a Brit wins it and gets more than they would have. There may also be a stipulation that you HAVE to go public. (Texas it seems you dont have to go public, so you maybe even go to the USA to claim it in a state of your choice_

3) £12 a week is a lot for people to find consistently for limited returns.

snuffy said:

Your 6 numbers get entered into 2 draws on the same night. You only pick 1 set of 6, and they get used in both draws. They are independent draws, with the prizes the same for each draw. They are not connected. Apart from the Jackpot figure.

Think of it like this: It's £1 per entry, but it's £1 in draw one, and £1 in draw two, and you must enter both draws, so it's still £2.

BOLD

That's the problem though.

You sit and watch as your 6 numbers roll out of the machine. Congrats You've just won £10M. Pop the Champers!

But wait.

Lets do a second draw with another machine and another set of numbers. And wouldn't you know it. Another player has matched the 2nd draws 6 numbers. So now you've got to share the £10M you had for all of 5 mins!

[Blue_star]

Snuffy - all clear, thanks
Bunkmoreland - jackpots are paid over 30 years per T&C btw.

[thegreenhell]

BunkMoreland said:

BOLD

That's the problem though.

You sit and watch as your 6 numbers roll out of the machine. Congrats You've just won £10M. Pop the Champers!

But wait.

Lets do a second draw with another machine and another set of numbers. And wouldn't you know it. Another player has matched the 2nd draws 6 numbers. So now you've got to share the £10M you had for all of 5 mins!

Is the jackpot split half and half per draw, or is it an equal split between combined winners of both draws?

What I mean is, if you're the only winner of draw 1, but then five people win draw 2, do you get half a jackpot for your draw and the others split their half five ways, or do you all share the whole jackpot split six equal ways?

[BunkMoreland]

Blue_star said:

Bunkmoreland - jackpots are paid over 30 years per T&C btw.

https://www.powerball.com/powerball-prize-chart

Says you have the choice. Lump sum or Annuity

Bear in mind the

Current Lotto odds - 45m to 1 (on the old 49 numbers it was 14m to 1)
Current Euromillions odds - 140m to 1
Current Powerball odds - 292m to 1

thegreenhell said:

Is the jackpot split half and half per draw, or is it an equal split between combined winners of both draws?

What I mean is, if you're the only winner of draw 1, but then five people win draw 2, do you get half a jackpot for your draw and the others split their half five ways, or do you all share the whole jackpot split six equal ways?

My best guess, since Allwyn haven't specified. The phrasing is "share of the jackpot" So in your example of 1 winner in draw 1 and 5 in draw 2. The Jackpot would be split 6 ways!

The Jackpot is the only prize split over the 2 draws.

[snuffy]

BunkMoreland said:

My best guess, since Allwyn haven't specified. The phrasing is "share of the jackpot" So in your example of 1 winner in draw 1 and 5 in draw 2. The Jackpot would be split 6 ways!

The Jackpot is the only prize split over the 2 draws.

That would be my guess also.