to stop playing the National Lottery after the ticket price rises?

[Tw1nkle]

I struggle to justify the £18 a month I pay now(2 lines, sat & wed).......so no way will I be able to afford the £36 a month it will go up to in the Autumn!

I think I'm going to stop playing altogether! I know my numbers though - so I'll never be able to watch again!!!

I also never seem to see any of the 'good causes' that they talk about......

[notapizzaeater]

I'm cancelling mine too - luckily I don't know my numbers

[specialsubject]

apparently quite a lot does go to good causes.

analogy - Wembley stadium filled to the brim with footballs. One of them is yours. A random force picks one. Those are the odds of the big win.

[secretscwirrels]

You don't "play" a lottery, you just buy tickets.
What a staggering waste of £200 a year. Have you really any idea how unlikely it is that you will win anything?

[pluCaChange]

It's a tax, and it's the one tax we don't have to pay, so don't pay it!

[CuriousMama]

No I'm stopping too, have done 1 line for years. I don't know them off by heart though. Even if I did I don't watch the programme so would never know. I do know 3 big lotto winners though, through family and friends. Over 10 million each. 2 from my home town!

[CuriousMama]

Oh and I once won 1.5K but that was when I put £25 on one week. It came in so handy as was leaving exdh and it helped with move etc..

[RuleBritannia]

I've toyed with the idea of not buying any more but wondered how Camelot can justify putting up prices.

What costs them more to enable them to charge us for it? Salaries?

I do £24 pm on one line of Lottery and one line of Euromillions twice a week.

[Tee2072]

They are putting some of the jackpots up, that justifies the price hike.

I don't play, but my husband does. shrug

[HecateWhoopass]

Yes. I say I'm going to stop too.

But I play the same numbers every week and I do know them. And there's this part of me that thinks that the first week I don't play will be the week my numbers will come up. And then I'll have to throw myself off a bridge or something

[DeckSwabber]

The lottery does an awful lot of good so you could think of it as a charity donation as well as a bit of fun. They have pretty thorough vetting procedures so you know the money will be well spent, and not just on 'popular' causes.

However, if you want to give money to charity, the charity will get a lot more of your cash if you donate directly and ideally donate regularly.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

I don't quite understand the need for midweek draws, thunderballs and scratchcards - can't it just be consolidated into one game with larger prizes?

[LeeCoakley]

Yes, WHY does it have to go up? If running costs are so high then either it needs to go out to tender again or the charities get less or the prize money goes down. Where else would anyone get away with a 100% hike? Premium bonds have never gone up, it just the prize money has gone down. It's better psychology.

[cumfy]

Seems they have rather misjudged the market given the responses.

[PurpleStorm]

Is the proportion of the ticket price set aside for prizes going to remain the same?

[DeckSwabber]

I don't understand the obsession with big jackpots, either. Surely 100 people winning £10,000 is better than 1 person getting £1,000,000. 100 families benefit and the economy benefits if all those people get to buy something new or pay off some debts.

Not that I would say no to £1,000,000 .....

[SnoogyWoo]

I will stop when the price rises. Its disgusting.

[WMittens]

The price hasn't risen in 18 years - not bad going. Petrol was apparently about 51p/litre in 1995, about 260% of that now; a loaf of bread looks to be comparable, 50p-ish in 1995 and £1.20-£1.40 now (premium level). A lottery ticket will still be better value product for product after the price rise.

[bluebump]

I have played the same numbers since it started so I'm torn between paying more money (I only do the Saturday draw) or never watching again and hoping my numbers don't finally come up!!

[marquesas]

Why is it disgusting, that's a silly thing to say

No one is forced to buy a ticket, you want one and you can afford it so you buy it, you don't or you can't afford it so you don't.

Being unreasonable doesn't come into it, it's a totally discrectionary purchase.

[expatinscotland]

Don't waste your money on that crap.

[choccyp1g]

If you don't have regular numbers, just change to doing it alternate weeks. Or go from 2 lines to 1.

If you have regular numbers ...change to doing it alternate weeks, AND STOP WATCHING IT ON TV. You can get your tickets checked when you buy new ones.

But I am always scared they'll say "no nothing on that ticket", then hand you back their old losing ticket, while pocketing your multi-million pounds winner.

[MarianneM]

I am half thinking the OP and some of the responses MUST be a joke...you can't be serious...?

Example: I've toyed with the idea of not buying any more but wondered how Camelot can justify putting up prices. What costs them more to enable them to charge us for it? Salaries? I do £24 pm on one line of Lottery and one line of Euromillions twice a week.

Like it's some kind of basic need!?

I have always thought playing the lottery is for morons - I am now convinced.

[MarianneM]

From DH: "Sounds like it's not even a basic need but a moral right!"

[lurkedtoolong]

Play it, don't play it. It's a game that's been going since 1994 and the price hasn't risen once, they've decided to raise the price by 100% and the basic prize that most people win by 150%. You do know that it's not actually the law that you have to participate?