Brits Fear Winning Large Lottery Jackpots - But Not That Much

A recent survey conducted in the United Kingdom has yielded some surprising results: 4 out of 10 people think that winning a staggeringly high lottery jackpot would cause more harm than good. The harm, they describe, would come in the form of relationship issues, family feuds, and money-seeking “friends.”

The fears are not the same when it comes to winning smaller lottery amounts; according to the survey, conducted by Free Post Code Lottery, Brits are only concerned that very large prizes may have the possibility to destroy their quality of life.

The objectivity of the survey, however, has come into question, since the Free Post Code Lottery is a company that offers smaller and more frequent lottos - unlike the UK National Lottery, whose jackpots soar into the millions. The results seem to benefit a company that sells smaller lottery tickets, as opposed to its larger competitors.

Are the Concerns Valid?

The concerns raised by the survey are not totally invalid; relationship trouble, family disputes and false friends are difficulties that can arise when one wins a life-changing sum of money.

However, the same survey shows that the majority of Brits (every 6 out of 10 people) do see the value in winning the lottery: Relief from monetary concerns, putting away savings for children, and generally upgrading the level of their lives.

In fact, according to The Telegraph, 70% of UK adults - more than 32 million people - play the lottery on a regular basis. So while some of the population might be disillusioned, the majority is not.

Big Lottery Wins

With lottery jackpots simply taking off over the past few years, the benefits of winning cannot be easily discounted. Just this April, a record-breaking £35.1 million National Lottery jackpot was won by one person. In January of this year, 2 winners split another record-breaking £66 million prize from the National Lottery. The highest amount ever won was in 2011, when a single player won £161.7 million by playing EuroMillions (a pan-European lottery that is also part of the UK National Lottery).

Clearly, Brits have not totally written off the idea that winning huge lotto jackpots is a good thing. We can see this in the odds. The chances of winning a UK National jackpot are approximately 1 in 14 million - which means that millions and millions of lottery tickets are purchased every week.

Online Lottery Tickets Have Made the Lotto More Accessible

Players no longer need to go to the local convenience store in order to purchase lottery tickets - they can do so with ease without ever leaving their homes, from their PCs or mobile devices. The ability to purchase online lottery tickets has made the lottery even more accessible to Brits who like to play, and the allure of big wins is made even more irresistible when purchasing tickets is so easy.

Winners

Since the launch of the National Lottery in 1994, over 3,600 people in the UK have become millionaires, all due to winning massive jackpots. And that’s just from the National Lottery - it doesn’t include European and other international lotteries that Brits now have access to - solely due to the availability of online tickets.

About the UK National Lottery

The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the UK; it offers a number of games, including Lotto, Lotto Hotpicks, Thunderball, EuroMillions, Scratchcards and online Instant Wins, UK Millionaire Maker, and Millionaire Raffle. All prizes are paid as a tax-free, lump sum.

The UK National Lottery does not keep all lottery ticket revenue it brings in; 50% goes to the prize fund, 28% to “good causes,” 12% to the UK government, 5% to retailers and 5% to the operator, Camelot.