Five Golden Rules

Playing a National Lottery game is never rocket science, but there are five golden rules that players should consider adhering to if they want their involvement to be enjoyable and stress free. In no particular order of importance, the five golden rules are as follows:

1 – Plan Ahead

If you leave buying your lottery tickets until the last minute (which basically means the day of the draw itself) then you can almost guarantee yourself long queues. Whilst waiting in line may not bother you, if your local lottery retailer has any problems with the terminal itself then you could find it difficult getting to another retailer before the ticket sales deadline arrives. Fortunately, there is a very simple way to avoid such problems, and that is to plan ahead. Buy your tickets as early in the week as possible, and get into the habit of doing so during off-peak hours.

2 – Have A Hiding Place

Several lottery jackpots worth many millions of pounds have been missed out on simply because the winning tickets were lost or misplaced by the rightful owner. Our second golden rule is therefore to have a specific hiding place that you use from week to week. When you buy your tickets you should put them in this place as soon as possible so that you always know where they are when you come to check them.

3 – Check Numbers Weekly

Some prizes have gone unclaimed only because their winners never discovered they were winners in the first place. It is a good idea to check your lottery tickets weekly, either by referring to the numbers published in newspapers, on teletext or on this web site. If you can get into the habit of doing this on the same day each week, the chances of you remaining unaware of a win will fall quite dramatically.

4 – Claim Promptly

If you discover that you have won a lottery prize, you should make your claim as soon as you can. You have up to 180 days from the draw to make a valid claim, but the sooner you do so, the less likely you are to forget and miss this deadline. Smaller prizes can be claimed direct from your usual lottery retailer, but larger prizes will need to be claimed from a National Lottery Post Office or regional lottery office – see the claim instructions on the back of your ticket for more information.

5 – Don't Brag

All major lottery winners have the option to take publicity or not. Your decision on this is of course entirely up to you, but we recommend that until you have given the matter some serious consideration, you refrain from bragging about any large prize that you are lucky enough to win. If you tell even one person other than your partner you risk the news spreading and being inundated with attention that you will not be prepared for.

01 August 2007