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With the Channel Islands Christmas Lottery winners set to be announced tonight, hundreds of people across both Channel Islands have said that splitting the lottery into two separate draws could be a way of reviving decreasing sales.
The number of tickets sold – and therefore the size of the jackpot – has decreased year on year since the record first prize of £1.2million was given away in 2014.
Prior to the first "millionaire maker" lottery in 2013 the jackpot had never gone over the landmark figure.
However, after going over a million pounds for five years running the first prize has been reaching lower and lower peaks ever since.
Pictured: The jackpot prizes for each of the last 13 years along with the ticket price for that year.
Last week, this year's growing jackpot had reached £425,000 – just £125k up from its starting point at the beginning of October.
Although the organisers feel certain that the jackpot will reach at least the same height as last year's £545,000, some people aren't convinced.
All will be revealed this evening when the winners are announced.
A poll launched by Express to find out why ticket sales have dropped off resulted in a number of very similar and unsurprising answers.
Over 70% of respondents across both Bailiwicks said they had bought fewer tickets this year than they have for previous draws with fewer than 10% saying they've bought more and the remainder saying they've bought about the same number as they usually do.
One of the most common responses across the two polls – run on our Jersey and Guernsey sites – where we asked what could encourage you to buy more tickets was reducing the cover price back to £1.
The CI Christmas Lottery had cost £1 for many years before the decision was made in 2012 to increase ticket prices to £2 before they went up again in 2018, to £3.
That coincided with the beginning of the decline in ticket sales and in 2022 ticket prices were reduced back down to £2.
It seems that many readers would still like lottery tickets to cost £1, with that being a recurrent answer across both polls.
Pictured: CI Christmas Lottery tickets used to be £1, then they doubled to £2 in 2013, increased again to £3 in 2018 and then dropped back down to £2 last year.
Other respondents have said the £2 ticket should be kept with one even saying it should just be one number per ticket – "two numbers gives the same odds but is just annoying to check" and that the scratch card should be scrapped.
While many people still seem keen to play a Channel Islands Christmas Lottery, the scratch card part of the ticket is not universally popular.
A few respondents to our poll suggested the scratch card portion be scrapped.
A common complaint is that there seems to be fewer prizes in the scratch card game than there has been in previous years.
One respondent said: "This year we have noticed that we haven't won anything on the scratch cards and usually we win on some".
Another said: "Cut out the scratch part and go back to £1 per ticket."
Pictured: Some respondents aren't fans of the scratch card element of the Christmas Lottery tickets.
With other scratch card games available to buy all year round, it was suggested by a few respondents that the Christmas Lottery should be differentiated further from those with one simply saying: "Ditch the scratch card."
Another suggestion was to withdraw all other scratch cards at Christmas so only the festive tickets are available for a while.
People in Guernsey used to complain that the jackpot was always won in Jersey, however that all changed in 2018.
Since then, each year a mixture of syndicates and individual winners have bought their winning ticket in Guernsey.
Understandably, readers of our Jersey site responded to the poll with some saying that "Guernsey always win" while others suggested "Jersey do their own one" and "a separate one for Jersey and Guernsey".
The topic of how the draw is made also came up in replies to our poll with one respondent saying there should be a "live draw" with the "top prize to be split between islands so that there is a winner in Jersey and one in Guernsey".
Pictured: Jersey players have noted that the jackpot has been won in Guernsey for five years running, so far.
Suggestions of a "better distribution of prizes" were also made with one reply coming up with a detailed plan.
"Instead of one big sum, have three or four smaller top prizes. e.g. instead of £300,000: 3x £100,000. I would be more than happy if I won one of them."
Other suggestions – more common in the Guernsey replies than those from Jersey – were to scrap the local lottery entirely and allow National Lottery tickets to be sold here.
One person went a step further: "Bin it and join UK & Euro lotteries. Everything the States runs is a disaster now".
With the Channel Islands Christmas Lottery providing hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants to good causes across the islands every year it is important to many people that its success is enabled as far as possible.
Some respondents to our survey felt that if more of the money was set aside for the charities then people would be tempted to buy more tickets to support the good causes.
"Suspend other CI lottery products over the Christmas period so that all lottery spending is directed towards the Christmas lottery which has the greatest charitable contribution," was one suggestion, while another reply raised questions over the marketing of the lottery.
"Perhaps more advertising on the charitable benefits, not just 'you can win x' but 'x amount raised for charities so far'. Probably more likely to buy thinking I’m giving to charity and could get lucky vs I’m just gambling," was that suggestion.
Another respondent said they'd like to know where the money raised goes, with another saying there should be more emphasis on the charities that benefit.
Pictured: The Channel Islands Christmas Lottery raises money for charities.
Regardless of all of the comments made in relation to this year's ticket sales the Channel Islands Christmas Lottery continues to be an annual tradition for many people.
"This year we have noticed that we haven't won anything on the scratchcards and usually we win on some. There is quite obviously less prizes this year, so I can see why people aren't bothering to buy tickets. For us it's a Christmas tradition, which we will probably continue to do, as long as we live in Guernsey," was one reply.
The Channel Islands Christmas Lottery winners are set to be announced this evening.
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