Rollover Riches

Rollovers never fail to renew my enthusiasm for lottery games the world over. Whether it's Lotto, EuroMillions or even lottery games that I don't play personally, such as Powerball and Mega Millions, rollovers always capture my attention. And the bigger they are, the better!

Even though I write a weekly lottery blog and play regularly, I am just as likely as anyone else to establish a groove and get so comfortable within it that – when things change even a little – I feel as if everything is refreshingly different. That said, I thought it would be a good idea to identify the main reasons why I like rollover draws more than regular draws.

Better Value
The most obvious reason why I like rollovers is because they give us the chance to win more than usual, and this equates to me getting better value for money. One Wednesday my £1 lottery ticket might give me a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of winning a jackpot of around £2.24 million. The following Saturday’s rollover jackpot might give my £1 ticket exactly the same chance of winning around £7.76 million. And a double rollover could give me the same odds for the same ticket cost, but with the prize of around £11 million. So the value of the prize can easily multiply by a factor of five in the space of a week, whilst the ticket cost and odds of winning remain exactly the same. Like I said, more cash means better value.

Bigger Dreams
Higher lottery jackpots don’t only give us better value, they also give us bigger dreams. Consider the kind of fantasies you allow yourself to play with when the jackpot is around the £2 million mark. Maybe you’d think about getting a new home in the country, a couple of flash cars, travelling the world and taking early retirement. Then consider the kind of fantasies you have when there is £10 million or more up for grabs. The chances are that your dreams tend to swell by the same proportion, and you might now think of buying several homes, a fleet of cars or spending half of your fortune on a small private island somewhere. It can therefore be said that rollovers are good because they allow us to fantasise on a much bigger canvas.

More Excitement
My third and final reason for loving rollover draws is that they tend to be more exciting events. Rollovers are promoted more often and with more pizzazz than regular draws, making players more enthusiastic about buying tickets and driving the jackpot size up still further. To wax poetic for a moment, rollovers are tidal waves of hope and potential, and the bigger they are, the bigger they get.

My odds of winning the next Lotto rollover are the same as my odds of winning a non-rollover prize, but I’m always going to be more fired up when playing the rollover game. I wish all of you the very best of luck for the next time you participate in a rollover draw, and I encourage you to enjoy the ride…
 

Article Last Updated: 30/04/2009 12:00:08

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