Points and Prizes, not bad for free (thedailydraw.com)

Member Name: mark-r

Product:	thedailydraw.com
Date:	16/05/01 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free to play, Quick and Easy

Disadvantages: No small prizes, Annoying fullscreen adverts

It is inevitable that any free online lottery site is going to be compared to the venerable old Bananalotto, simply because it's a common reference point that everyone's heard of. First, though, let's have a rundown of the features of TheDailyDraw.com.

Once registered, you can play once per day. You choose six numbers between 1 and 64 and click on an advertising banner. You are taken to the advertiser's web site and your numbers are entered into a draw - simple.

The prizes are (as usual) a million quid for the unlikely event of matching all six numbers (remember that the numbers range from 1 to 64 so the chances of winning are many times less than the National Lottery). There are also prizes for matching 5 numbers (5 grand) and 4 numbers (25 quid), but nothing for three numbers. Since I've not won anything yet, I can't tell you how you efficient the prize despatching team are!

There are a couple of other incentives to come back and play regularly. First, for a limited time (May-July 2001), members of the MyPoints reward scheme (a useful scheme in itself, and well worth joining) receive 25 points per month if they play at least 8 times. Secondly, there's the "accumulator" where for every six numbers you match per month you get one entry into a prize draw. Currently, the prize is a luxury weekend away. So, for example, if I play 4 times and match 1 number, 2 numbers, 2 numbers and 1 number I gain one accumulator entry even though none of my individual games were winners.

OK, so now the Bananalotto comparisons. Well, you'll have noticed there's no equivalent to the 50p prize. This is a big mistake. Although the 50 pences are effectively worthless, they provide that little extra incentive to play. With this game, you could play religiously for years and get nothing. Boredom would soon set in. Just like the £10 wins on the National Lottery, the Bananalotto 50p wins (a daily player would exp
ect one about every 8 weeks, and a fiver maybe once a year) provide a sort of sense of achievement that has you coming back for more. Thankfully, the MyPoints points provide the incentive to play for me, and I hope they continue it beyond the trial period.

The other noticable difference to Bananalotto is that the site is a little less polished. For example, your username is your email address, and you have to type it in every time you play. One nice feature though, is a "slow connection" version of the site which removes much of the "eye-candy" from the pages. However, the site employs one of my pet peeves: the adverts open in a new window that grows itself to fullscreen and refuses to shrink. To me, this is like walking into someone's house without knocking - I chose the size of my browser window for a good reason, and my software should respect that!

So, in summary, not bad. It's worth playing this game but not at the expense of giving up Bananalotto. Since you're unlikely to ever see a cash prize, hurry and join MyPoints as well, then at least you'll have something to show for your efforts.

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