£2.50 for EuroMillions ticket in ‘rip-off’

LOTTERY firm Camelot came under fire yesterday after it hiked the cost of EuroMillions tickets to £2.50 and made a jackpot even more unlikely.

As odds against winning the top prize lengthened to an eye-watering 140 million to one, furious punters accused the operator of being greedy and ripping them off.

Until last Saturday the jackpot odds were 117 million to one but Camelot has tinkered with the game by introducing an extra number.

Punters now choose five numbers from 1 to 50, which is unchanged, but must also pick two lucky star numbers from 12, instead of 11 as before.

The cost of a ticket used to be £2 and will still only be the equivalent of £2.10 in the rest of Europe.

Punters took to Twitter to vent their anger. Chrissie Downing wrote: “Paying more for the privilege of having less chance of winning...I don’t think so!”

Mike Welch wrote: “Pay more for less chance of winning...pure greed.”

Camelot was already under fire after raising the price of a National Lottery ticket from £1 to £2 in 2013 and making the game harder to win last year by introducing an extra 10 balls.

Punters now choose six numbers from 59 instead of 49 as before.

A punter tweeted yesterday: “Not happy with doubling the cost of UK lottery and making it three times harder to win...they are now increasing the EuroMillions cost too.”

But Camelot claimed the changes to EuroMillions will ensure that more players become millionaires.

It said the overall odds of winning any prize will remain at one in 13.

In addition, there will be at least four guaranteed millionaire winners a week through the UK Millionaire Maker, double the current number.

A spokesman for Camelot said: “Like any business, we recognise there will always be a small minority who don’t like change. But we have to do what we believe is in the best interests of maximising returns to good causes.”

When Camelot increased the number of Lotto balls last year, Dr John Haigh, emeritus reader in mathematics at the University of Sussex, remarked: “The odds were dreadful before. They are more dreadful now.”

There was further anger when people trying to play the new-look EuroMillions on Saturday complained that some outlets still only had the old-style tickets and staff in stores appeared not to know about changes to the game.

One punter tweeted: “I went into a large WHSmith in St Albans and they still had the old tickets.

“The staff seemed completely unaware of the changes.”

But Camelot insisted all retailers were supplied with new tickets in advance and alerted to the upgrade.

A spokesman said: “We’re not aware of any problems with play slips for the new EuroMillions game.

“The 45,000-plus retailers in our estate who sell draw-based games were all sent new play slips in plenty of time, along with a marketing pack outlining the key changes.”