It's a bore draw (National Lottery, The)

Member Name: mikeb

Product:	National Lottery, The
Date:	28/11/00 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I've got as much chance as anyone else

Disadvantages: That chance is nearly zero

(UPDATE 18/12 AT BOTTOM OF PAGE)

Now that the fight to win the right to run the national lottery has been opened up again and Camelot are back in with a chance against Richard Branson, I think one of them (preferably Branson) should play the trump card.

I think the proposal that could swing the decision towards one of them would be if they promised to scrap the current national lottery TV shows and pledge that the BBC will not have to pay anything to show the results in future. The BBC could then admit that it was sheer stupidity to expect that everyone would want to sit through half an hour of either a run of the mill quiz show or two or three songs by boy & girl bands before the real reason for watching actually started. Don't get me wrong, I do actually quite like to watch the draws themselves but have lost count of the amount of times I've missed them by turning over during the boring bits.

The new lottery show could then be relaunched in the format it should have always have been in, a straightforward three minute draw for both the Thunderball and then the lottery. I've deliberately not said three minutes for the new extra draw because surely this one can't last, if you struggle for weeks just to get three numbers to get a tenner you would be mad to expect to get all six with no smaller prizes for less than six.

The main reason I said that I preferred Richard Branson to win the right to run the lottery at the start was that he is promising to give all the profits to the good causes, unlike Camelot. Even allowing fo the dubious nature of some of these good causes I would still prefer that they received it rather than it go to pay the bonuses of the Camelot bosses.


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UPDATE 18TH DECEMBER:

I read in the papers today that the decision over who will run the National Lottery for the next seven years is expected shortly. In a very surprising move
the rumour is that Camelot are now favourites to get the nod, despite being ruled out of the contest originally. Apparently the deciding factors are likely to be:

1) They are running it successfully at the moment.

2) Any potential transfer to a new organisation may result in several weeks when the draw would not take place due to the changeover.

3) There is no great opposition from the public to Camelot at the moment.


Personally I think it would be a mistake to allow Camelot to continue because, as I said in my original opinion, as they are a profit making company this reduces the amount of money available to good causes, but I can see the logic in the “better the devil you know” angle.

Summary: