National Lottery players’ fury over endless rollovers after Camelot makes £22.9m jackpot harder to win
The National Lottery has been rolled over a total of 9 times
LOTTERY players are furious that they've been splashing out on tickets for more than a MONTH without anyone scooping the jackpot.
New rules, which came into force in October 2015, mean lotto bosses can continue to rollover the National Lottery jackpot for longer than before.
The main Lotto game has now been drawn 9 times without a winner being found.
This Saturday’s draw will see the jackpot standing at £22.9 million after being rolled over from 19 April.
The jackpot was last won on 15 April when one winner scooped the £3.4 million prize.
And the EuroMillions hasn’t been scooped since 11 April – when £70 million was won - and the prize for Friday’s draw is now an eye-watering £91 million.
The last time the £500,000 Thunderball prize was won was on 29 March.
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Frustrated players have complained on social media about the number of rollovers and lack of top wins.
Dave said: “#lottery #Euro millions #Rollover again #Thunderball hasn't been won for weeks either. Don't see how that's possible? #Joke.”
And Tommy said: “Wonder how the UK lottery compares to others around the world Rollovers are just rubbish.”
Another Twitter user said: “Saved money again. never now play the lottery until it's over the must be won threshold, it's just rollover rollover rollover.”
The odds of landing the Lotto jackpot have gone from one in 14 million to one to 45 million after ten more balls were added in October 2015.
Previously, the rules also said that there could only be four rollovers before the pot was split up, whereas now it can keep growing until it reaches £22 million.
After this limit has been reached or exceeded, it can only roll over once more before it is won.
If no-one matches all six numbers in the next draw then the jackpot amount will roll down to the next prize tier.
At the time Camelot said that the chances of winning at least £1 million had improved and that the Lucky Dip tickets would create an extra 1.8 million winners each week.
But, 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.
Camelot also caused a stir last year when it 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.
The Euromillions jackpot can rise to approximately £163 million. If it's not won before it reaches this level then any additional cash rolls down into the next highest winner category.
A spokesman for Camelot said that it "just so happens" that the Lotto and EuroMillions are rolling at the same time.
Bigger jackpots mean more sales, and more sales mean more money for Good Causes
Camelot spokeswoman
She said: “Bigger jackpots mean more sales, and more sales mean more money for Good Causes.
"So far in 2017, the two games have had 18 jackpot winners combined, as well as 129 guaranteed millionaires on the Lotto and EuroMillions raffles.
"Thunderball is different because it does not have a rolling jackpot – it has a top prize of £500k in every single draw and that will never be shared.
"So, even if four people win the top prize – which recently happened in March – they will still scoop £500k each."
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