What You Need To Know Before You Do The Lottery Again.
So who does the lottery?
Before I go any further I want to make clear that I’m not knocking the lottery, it does some amazing things for charities both national and local. The point of this post is to give you something to think about.
I use to do the lottery every single week, then came the euro lottery and I jumped on that too, I don’t even want to think about the amount of money I have spent on the dream of winning.
Now there’s nothing wrong with doing the lottery but it’s the amount that is being spent and what you could have done with the money instead.
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How much do you spend on the lottery?
Well, you probably don’t want to think about it, especially in the early days of the lottery. However, I was surprised to learn that the average lifetime spend on lotteries in the UK being £377.94 per person.
The Odds
Warning this information may be cause disappointment (or maybe excitement for some). We hear about the odds and probability of winning the lottery and although –
the odds of winning any prize from the national lottery draw is 1:9.3
the odds of you winning the national lottery jackpot (match 6*) is 1:45,057,474.
Now that’s a big difference.
The Euro Lottery Jackpot (Match 5 + 2 Lucky Stars) – odds are at 1: 139,838,160
with the overall EuroMillions prize odds at 1:13
Let's put that into perspective
There’s more chance of you (or your partner) having identical quadruplets with odds of 1 in 15,000,000 than winning the EuroMillions Jackpot.
The chances of Kim Kardashian becoming President of the United States is 555,555 times more likely than you winning the EuroMillions Jackpot with odds at 1:81
You are more likely to win an Oscar ( yes you read that right) than win the National Lottery UK Jackpot. In fact, you have a 1:11,500 chance of being an Oscar winner as oppose to 1:45,057,474 with winning the national lottery jackpot UK.
Let's Talk Cost
With the average lifetime spend on lotteries in the UK being £377.94 per person
Lets say that our lottery player plays one line of the Euro Lottery and the national lottery every week.
That’s a total of £9.00 per week / £39.00 per month / £468.00 per yr.
What you could do with that money
With £39.00 deposited every month (£468.00 per year) into…
| Bank | % | 1 Yr | 3 Yrs | 5 Yrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Marcus by Goldman Sachs | 0.50% | £469.07 | £1,414.29 | £2,369.00 |
Moneybox | 0.60% | £469.29 | £1,416.35 | £2,374.85 |
NatWest & RBS | 3.04% | £474.58 | £ 1,468.07 | £ 2,523.76 |
NS&I Premium Bonds
Placing your savings with NS&I premium bonds will not give your interest BUT you do get a chance to win cash prizes. Now I know what you’re thinking – this sounds like the lottery but it’s not.
Unlike the lottery you can withdraw your money from your Premium Bonds account, you can set up a regular standing order of £25+ or make a one-off payment of £100+
The odds of winning one of the monthly cash prizes with premium bonds are more attractive than that of the lottery.
The monthly prize draws prizes range between £25 and £1 million, with 2 millionaires every month.
Interested now?
Well as you can see I am a fan of Premium Bonds – not just because withdrawals take a few days, (Easy access to my savings is a no-no for me) but also because I have a realistic chance of winning a cash prize.
Don’t forget that the downside of this opportunity is the cost of loss of interest.
Do you want to know the attractive odds?
Based on you holding 468 premium bonds in a year (£468), you’d have odds of winning at 34,500 to 1 (for every £1 Bond)
Additional Payments To Credit Card Debt
There’s another alternative that would save you money in the long run and that’s putting it towards paying off your credit card, overdraft, loans or mortgage debts. Making additional payments towards your credit card balance will save you money with regards to the interest as this is based on your credit balance.
Check out how much you could save with this handy credit card calculator courtesy of MoneySupermarket.
Advice & Support
Please don’t keep quiet if you feel you have a gambling habit, many organisations offering advice and support.
Here are a couple of places that you can check out for support and advice for gambling concerns.
National Gambling Helpline
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