LOTTERY ticket sales have plunged by £226million after Camelot made it harder to win the jackpot.

It made a series of changes to the Lotto in October, including increasing the number of balls from 49 to 59 - reducing the chance of winning the biggest prize from one in 14 million to one in 45 million.

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Previously, the rules also said that there could only be four rollovers before the pot was split up, whereas now it can keep growing.

It also added a “Millionaire Raffle” to guarantee at least one millionaire per draw and players who match two numbers win a free Lucky Dip ticket for a future draw.

At the time Camelot said that the chances of winning at least £1million had improved and that the Lucky Dip tickets would create an extra 1.8 million winners each week.

However, independent statisticians argued that it is now a lot harder to win the big jackpot - with the chances of winning the biggest prize down to one in 45 million from one in 14 million.

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Yesterday, the company said it has received £3.38billion from ticket sales between April and September compared to £3.61billion in the same period last year.

Bosses said that they expect ticket sales to continue to fall and that the next six months will be “challenging”.

The fall in sales means that £92million less will be given to charity.

With the current climate of economic uncertainty and signs that consumers are being more cautious with their spending, we expect the next six months to be similarly challenging

Andy Duncan, CEO of Camelot

During the time Camelot creased 183 new lottery millionaires - taking the total amount to £61billion.

Andy Duncan, CEO of Camelot, said: “Despite the challenges we’ve faced over the last six months, our performance over the half-year still represents one of our best since The National Lottery’s launch in 1994 – and returning over £2.7 billion to Good Causes and players in just six months is no small achievement.”

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“With the current climate of economic uncertainty and signs that consumers are being more cautious with their spending, we expect the next six months to be similarly challenging.”

Camelot also caused a stir this year when they announced a raft of changes to the Euromillions lottery.

These included upping the price of a line by 50p to £2.50 and adding an extra number, decreasing the odds of winning the jackpot.

Bosses did promise bigger prizes and that they would double the number of UK millionaires.

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