National lottery con!

paultap

Well-Known Member
The national lotteries latest con trick seems to be working a treat, after cynically moving the goalposts back in October they have at a stroke made it 3 times as hard to win the Lotto jackpot.

You now have to pick 6 correct numbers out of numbers 1 to 59, where as previously your choice was from numbers 1 to 49. Using a mixture of hype and smoke and mirrors, they increased the 3 numbers win to £25 from £10, but then lowered the higher tier prizes at the same time. Recently they added a £1million raffle but since the lotto is far more likely to roll over than be won they are obviously very much quids in, they also doubled the entry fee to £2, Genius!!

When the lottery was introduced 20 years ago, the jackpot was £8 million every week for a £1 stake, now a £2 stake barely gets you £2.5 million if no rollover occurs and its 3 times as hard to win.

They also moved the goalposts on the Euro lottery shortly after it was introduced, initially you chose 5 numbers from 1 to 50 and then 2 Lucky star numbers from 1 to 9.

Shortly after they decided to considerably lengthen the odds by then adding another 2 numbers to the lucky star choice so now you had to pick 2 lucky stars from numbers 1 to 11.
This little slight of hand con trick meant that the Euro lottery is now far more likely to roll over than be won.

I imagine that if they were allowed to run a casino, they would be looking to lengthen the odds on winning at roulette and hale it as a great new deal for the customers.
 
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They certainly don't mention that after doubling the entry fee to £2,(and adding 10 more numbers) you now have to buy 3 tickets to have the same odds of winning the jackpot as before..... So you now have to spend £6 to get the same odds of winning the jackpot as what a £1 stake would have previously got you.

Obviously you don't have to enter, but I bet most people are unaware of exactly how much less chance they now have of winning the jackpot!
 
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Amazing some people have only just realised, the only people driving a rolls Royce is the owners of Camelot.
 
Since the price was doubled, I buy half the number of tickets. When it was announced that the Wednesday draw would finance the London Olympics, I stopped buying tickets for Wednesday.
 
I think the chances of winning the lottery are shorter than being killed in a plane crash. I'll risk doing the lottery, but I won't get in an airplane.
 
.....Since the price was doubled, I buy half the number of tickets...

That is exactly what I do.

I think the chances of winning the lottery are shorter than being killed in a plane crash. I'll risk doing the lottery, but I won't get in an airplane.

Well I've been in three plane crashes (two commercial, one I did myself) so the odds of me being in a fourth might still be less than winning the new lottery?

I also read the lottery is a tax on stupidity - but it is also now uber boring because even the small prizes that tickle the interest are very few and far between.
 
It's gambling, of course its stacked against the player, that's how the system works, if I totted up how many ££ I have saved in the past 20 years and compared that to the average winnings I think I'd be better off some how! Glad I've never played..... T'is a mugs game!

just done rough maths on that and its over £1000 assuming one ticket was being bought....
 
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A few months ago in the local supermarket all the posters were up advertising "massive lottery roll over" this was for the weekend draw. I thought it strange because the weekday draw wasn't until that evening! No surprise then there were no jackpot winners that evening. If such a game of chance how could the posters be printed and displayed in advance?
ILB
 
Like many silly "B"s I had done the same numbers week in week out since the lottery started. When Lotto moved the goalposts it was an excellent chance to call it a day, which I did.

Blackpowder
 
they should have let richard branson do the lottery, he was in the running and said he wouldnt make a penny himself from it when he was asked why he said the advertising for virgin alone would be more than enough but for some reason they went with camelot
 
It's no-fattening, unlike beer. It doesn't give you cancer, unlike fags. If you don't do the lottery, you won't win. If you don't fly, you won't crash. If you pay £75 for a walk in the country, you might get a shot(at extra cost) at a deer. You pays your money and you takes your choice.
 
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