Lottery Subscriptions
As many people will already be aware, it is now possible to play the National Lottery by subscription. This allows you to enter one line or several lines of numbers for an ongoing period (when paying by Direct Debit) or for a fixed 26, 52 or 104 consecutive draws, and you can elect to play either the Wednesday draw, the Saturday draws or both Wednesdays and Saturdays.
There are a number of benefits to playing the lottery by subscription. The first is that your tickets will be checked automatically, so you won't miss out on any prize simply because you forget to keep an eye on the numbers that are drawn. A second benefit is that you won't have to remember to buy lottery tickets in the first place, and thereby risk missing out if your favourite numbers come up. And a third benefit is that you won't have to queue to buy tickets from a lottery retailer or worry about them checking your ticket properly if this is someone you usually ask them to do.
It all sounds very rosy indeed, but I think that all of these advantages are actually outweighed by the disadvantages of playing the lottery by subscription. Yes, in my opinion there are several distinct disadvantages to subscribing, and I wouldn't be much of a lottery blogger if I didn't point them out, so here goes:
1) You can't change your numbers as easily as you can when playing weekly. In fact, if you play for a fixed period of time (and don't have an automatic renewal set up via Direct Debit) then you can't change your numbers at all. This means that if you dream about six cosmic numbers in the middle of your subscription period you'll either have to buy an extra ticket yourself or hope they don't come up!
2) When you buy lottery tickets on a weekly basis, you have a nice little ritual that helps to build a sense of anticipation for the upcoming draw. You can buy your ticket on Monday or Thursday and enjoy the fantasy of being the next winner all week long until the draw on Saturday or Wednesday. When you subscribe you will not have this weekly reminder, and the odds are that the lottery will seem less exciting as a result.
3) A subscription for anything can soon begin to feel like nothing more than an additional expense on top of all the usual bills. Spending a pound a week is not a great problem for anyone, but if you have to stump up £26, £52 or £104 all at once, you may begin to question whether your money would be better spent elsewhere. This could rub the shine off the lottery dream for many subscription players.
Whether playing the lottery by subscription is right for you depends on your own feelings about the above comments. I personally think that if you run a lottery syndicate, or find it difficult to remember to buy and/or check your tickets, a subscription can be a good idea. But otherwise I think that buying the tickets manually is better for most people, simply because you're taking a more interactive approach and therefore getting a more exciting experience as a result.
Article Last Updated: 22/05/2007 13:54:48
