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Cost of playing National Lottery to double

Simon Ward
by Lovemoney Staff Simon Ward on 16 January 2013  |  Comments 14 comments

Camelot says the price of a line will increase from £1 to £2 from the autumn and there will be changes to prize money amounts.

Cost of playing National Lottery to double

The cost of playing the National Lottery is to double from £1 to £2 a line from the autumn, operator Camelot has announced.

It’s the first price increase since the draw was launched in 1994.

To soften the blow, Camelot says the prize for matching three numbers will increase from £10 to £25. The average jackpot amount will also increase, to around £5 million for Saturday draws and around £2.5 million for Wednesdays.

However, the prize for matching five balls and the bonus will drop from an average of £100,000 to £50,000. Meanwhile, the prize for matching five balls will drop from an average of £1,500 to £1,000. But the prize for matching four balls will increase from an average of £60 to £100.

There will also be a Lotto raffle alongside each draw, where 50 winners will pocket £20,000 each. If the main Lotto jackpot rolls over, then the number of raffle winners will double to 100, with a triple rollover producing 200 winners and a quadruple rollover 400 winners.

Camelot says that, to date, the National Lottery has given away over £43 billion in prizes and created more than 3,000 millionaires.

Sales of draw-based games, including the National Lottery and EuroMillions, and instant play games, such as Lottery scratch cards, increased last year.

Will you keep playing the National Lottery when the price goes up? Let us know in the Comments section below.

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Comments (14)

  • CuNNaXXa
    Love rating 362
    CuNNaXXa said

    As babyhk says, the lottery should be just a flutter, for a minimal amount. As soon as they start to double the cost of a line, it no longer becomes a flutter, but a serious drain on resources.

    Take someone who pays £5 for five lines on a Wednesday and Saturday. They spend £10 a week. Suddenly this will double to £20. We might not miss a tenner, but could we say the same for £20?

    £20? That is the average cost of a Chinese Takeaway.

    It all boils down to what you get for your money. People don't mind spending £10 for a slim chance of winning a life changing amount of money, but they are more likely to begrudge spending more for a chance of winning less of a life changing amount.

    This is supposed to be a bit of fun. A chance to win big with a very small investment. As soon as it starts biting into our hard earned cash, it no longer becomes fun.

    Report on 20 January 2013  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • eLJay
    Love rating 76
    eLJay said

    I always play a line and plus 5 it just to give it a few chances. Costs £2 a throw. So if that now will cost £4 a throw then it's bye bye National Lottery and I'll just play the Euro millions instead.

    Less turn over for Camelot, less wages, less bonuses. Okay the odds are worse but the prize for the National lottery has become less and less due to the Euromillions and the odds of even getting a small win are being made even worse with the price increase.

    Worse deal and worse odds mean I may as well flutter on even worse overall odds with the Euromillions but at least if you win then you can buy a small chunk of Switzerland just for fun.

    Report on 07 March 2013  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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