The National Lottery

Do you play the National Lottery? If not, why not? Have you ever won on the lottery? What was your biggest win? How much do you spend on it per time? Do you stick with the same sentimental numbers of have lucky dips? Do you not play the National Lottery but do the Irish Lottery or Pools instead?

I play, usually 2 sets of numbers each play!

1 set are the same numbers I started with from day 1 so I can't give em up now! The second set is always a LD.

Biggest win?..... 4 numbers (between £50-£120), they came out 4 weeks in a row (back when the lottery was just once a week)!

I think with all the games its a bit of a scam these days and thts reflected on the amount of people now playing anymore and the prize funds going down.

I reckon Camelot should scrap the new games. Have 5 Lotto draws a week and a standard £2 ticket for 6 numbers. With guaranteed jackpots of £2m each draw! Simple... five chances with one ticket!

Originally posted by DaBouncer

I play, usually 2 sets of numbers each play!

1 set are the same numbers I started with from day 1 so I can't give em up now! The second set is always a LD.

 

Biggest win?..... 4 numbers (between £50-£120), they came out 4 weeks in a row (back when the lottery was just once a week)!

 

I think with all the games its a bit of a scam these days and thts reflected on the amount of people now playing anymore and the prize funds going down.

 

I reckon Camelot should scrap the new games. Have 5 Lotto draws a week and a standard £2 ticket for 6 numbers. With guaranteed jackpots of £2m each draw! Simple... five chances with one ticket!

at a 14 million to one chance of winning the jackpot, I sometimes take a bet if the jackpot is more than 14m quid.

When I gamble I prefer slightly better odds, like 1:1.8 against on a blackjack table.

But otherwise, no. I'm with Johnson who described lotteries as 'a tax on fools'. (at least I think it was him)

The lottery, same as any game of chance is based on greed and avarice, people like us without a chance of making a fortune in the ordinary way, will clutch at straws, ( a chance of 17.000.000 to one against. ) I am not a betting man, so please forgive me if I have got it wrong.

We usually buy one ticket twice a week, sometimes L.D. other times writing numbers down, our biggest win so far has been £45 for four numbers and a number of £10s over a period of years.

It is grossly unfair regarding the distribution of prize money as the one with six numbers can win £5 million and others with five, four, or three only get a paltry sum.

This franchise should have been given to Richard Branson, who was prepared to manage it without payment and I am sure he would have given better and more fair prizes.

It's a voluntary tax, I pay enough already thanks - Income tax, National Insurance, VAT, Council tax, car tax, petrol duty...

Odds aren't good - half the stake goes into Admin/Tax/"good causes".

Some of the "good causes" are ones that would previously have got government funding.

Some of the chosen good causes have not met with universal approval.

Half the prize money goes into the big prize so the best most of us can expect is less than 25% return on investment

Want to give money to good causes? The lottery isn't a good way to do that.

Assuming 2 tickets a week, out of your £100 a year £28 goes to charity.

Instead, write a cheque for £28 to your favourite charity once a year and complete a gift-aid form.

The charity reclaims the 22% tax you paid on that money and collects a total of £36 (and if you earn enough to pay 40% tax YOU can reclaim a further £6.50 on your tax return - so why not write a bigger cheque in the first place).

If you want a little gamble why not stick a couple of quid a week into Premium bonds instead (i.e. buy the minimum investment £100 once a year)

Do it for 10 years and you should win one or two prizes (£50 minimum) and at the end you can always cash the bonds and get your £1000 back or leave it there and expect a win once every 3 or 4 years - with a (small) chance of a big prize.

Nothing for charity? OK on leap years you give the £100 to charity (they get £128 with the tax refund) instead of Premium bonds.

Compare with Lottery at £2 per week. After 10 years you should have won 20 x £10 prizes and 1 4-ball (£45?) so you've won £245 but your £1000 is gone.

Having said that I do sometimes buy a rollover ticket - not winning £5M seems a better deal than not winning £2M !

I seldom play it myself. I play when there is a big jackpot. I always have lucky dips when I do play. The most I have ever won is £10. The problem I have is that I don't like how the funds are distrubuted and I don't like greedy Camelot. How the hell Camelot managed to salvage the contract at the 11th hour has still not been justified in my opinion. Camelot was deemed not fit to run the lotto and was out of the running leaving only Branson left, then from nowhere Camelot were awarded an extention to their existing agreement. I would like the Lottery to change providers after every 5 years. I don't like to see companies making a huge profit from this sort of thing.

I hear the odds are better with the Irish Lottery, and what about the Pools?

if you want to win money by gambling , it would seem the horses offer the best opportunity, or casinos if you have a talent for card counting.

if you do play the lottery then it is vital you choose 6 numbers that are completely random. That way you minimise the chances of them being chosen in that order by anyone else.

If your number does come up, you won;t have to share.

The chances were good enough on the irish lottery that it was famously scammed, although I don;'t remember the outcome.

pools - i dont even know how that all works so...

Many years ago someone managed to cheat on the pools to win the jackpot. It was when the pools swiched to Aussie football when the English football season has finished. There used to be a rule where you could post your pools coupon ouside the office in Liverpool. They must not have thought too carefully about this because someone managed to obtain the results from Austrialia and still post the coupon in order to meet the deadline. The only reason they got caught is because they had the cheek to try it again and win the jackpot. Obviously these rules have now been amended.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme

if you want to win money by gambling , it would seem the horses offer the best opportunity, or casinos if you have a talent for card counting.

 

if you do play the lottery then it is vital you choose 6 numbers that are completely random. That way you minimise the chances of them being chosen in that order by anyone else.

 

If your number does come up, you won;t have to share.

 

The chances were good enough on the irish lottery that it was famously scammed, although I don;'t remember the outcome.

 

pools - i dont even know how that all works so...

This is right. I understand that there is thousands of people who have the numner 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. If these numbers ever came out you would be sharing your jackpot with thousands leaving you with the smallest ever jackpot amount.

I have a go at Lotto on Wed and Sat, just one line each. I have the same numbers that I had right at the begining so I daren't not put them on in case they come up.

I have won about 6 x £10 and a £70 for 4 numbers so far.

If I had put 5 pounds in a jar for every lottery game on staurdays only since it started (93) I would have in the region of 2,600 quid. If I put it in a saving acct I might even have a smidgen more.....I'd have more than that If I went for the midweek draw too,

Originally posted by robh

It's a voluntary tax, I pay enough already thanks - Income tax, National Insurance, VAT, Council tax, car tax, petrol duty...

 

Odds aren't good - half the stake goes into Admin/Tax/"good causes".

 

Some of the "good causes" are ones that would previously have got government funding.

 

Some of the chosen good causes have not met with universal approval.

 

Half the prize money goes into the big prize so the best most of us can expect is less than 25% return on investment

 

Want to give money to good causes? The lottery isn't a good way to do that.

Assuming 2 tickets a week, out of your £100 a year £28 goes to charity.

Instead, write a cheque for £28 to your favourite charity once a year and complete a gift-aid form.

The charity reclaims the 22% tax you paid on that money and collects a total of £36 (and if you earn enough to pay 40% tax YOU can reclaim a further £6.50 on your tax return - so why not write a bigger cheque in the first place).

 

If you want a little gamble why not stick a couple of quid a week into Premium bonds instead (i.e. buy the minimum investment £100 once a year)

Do it for 10 years and you should win one or two prizes (£50 minimum) and at the end you can always cash the bonds and get your £1000 back or leave it there and expect a win once every 3 or 4 years - with a (small) chance of a big prize.

Nothing for charity? OK on leap years you give the £100 to charity (they get £128 with the tax refund) instead of Premium bonds.

 

Compare with Lottery at £2 per week. After 10 years you should have won 20 x £10 prizes and 1 4-ball (£45?) so you've won £245 but your £1000 is gone.

 

Having said that I do sometimes buy a rollover ticket - not winning £5M seems a better deal than not winning £2M !

You make some excellent points. I wish all those who have a grievance would refrain from participating. It's our only means of protest after all. Imagine 50 Million people in a crowd. It is extremely hard to imagine what that looks like. I have no idea of the acreage they would cover. Then pick out a couple. There's your chance.

However many lines one person invests in, it adds up to that many people! Each line is a person. I used to do the lottery dilligently from the outset, but I am appalled at some of the awards. Even the calibre of the awards personnel. Not to mention the corporate gains from our little old quids.

I am dead against using the lottery for politically correct purposes. We have enough of that with our taxes. Never mind our gambles.