Frequently Asked Questions about The National Lottery Thunderball Game

• How do I play The National Lottery Thunderball Game ?
  At the moment, you either have to fill in a Play Slip at your nearest National Lottery retailer and pay in cash for up to 8 draws' worth of numbers or take out a subscription by post. You cannot play The National Lottery Thunderball Game directly from outside the UK or via the Internet. (you need a UK mail forwarding address and a UK cheque to subscribe, which are sufficient hurdles to stop most non-UK players).

• Can I play The National Lottery Thunderball Game from outside the UK or via the Internet ?
  As I said just above, no, you can't (unless you're willing to take expensive steps to subscribe). You can visit the UK and buy a ticket in person, but you can't subscribe (or buy tickets) from outside the UK. I've phoned up Camelot about whether they will accept claims on tickets bought by UK visitors, but claimed from outside the UK. They seemed to say this was OK, although if you win a big prize, you're better off flying back to the UK and claiming it in person, IMHO, rather than trusting to the luck of the postal system.

• When did The National Lottery Thunderball Game start ?
  Surprisingly, this info wasn't in the How To Play leaflet - tickets for the first game went on sale on Monday 7th June 1999 and the first draw was on Saturday 12th June 1999 (aired live on BBC 1 TV prior to Saturday's main UK lottery draw). It takes place every Saturday evening after that - ticket sales close at 7.30pm each Saturday.

• Why should I play The National Lottery Thunderball Game instead of Saturday's (or Wednesday's) main UK lottery draw ?
  Er, incredibly, there isn't a single reason why you should ! With the main numbers being between 1 to 34, if you have any main UK lottery numbers above 34 (I do :-) ), then you can't use them in The National Lottery Thunderball Game. Also, the ticket costs the same (£1) and yet, because of the lack of any jackpot rollovers, the maximum you can ever win is £250,000, as opposed to £4m on Wednesday or £8m on Saturday. Personally, I'm not going to play this game - you can never be a millionaire with The National Lottery Thunderball Game.

• What happens if loads of people win a particular prize tier and potentially "bankrupt" the game ?
  If the total prizes awarded would exceed the ticket sales and one or more prize tiers exceed the maximum allowable number of fixed prizes for that tier, then prizes in those exceeded tiers are appropriately reduced to keep the total prizes awarded less than or equal to the ticket sales. The maximum allowable number of fixed prizes for each tier is calculated thus:

  Prize category                      Maximum number of fixed prizes
  Match 5 and the Thunderball      Ticket sales/(3,895,584.0000*0.5411)
  Match 5                          Ticket sales/(  299,660.3077*0.5411)
  Match 4 and the Thunderball      Ticket sales/(   26,866.0966*0.5411)
  Match 4                          Ticket sales/(    2,066.6228*0.5411)
  Match 3 and the Thunderball      Ticket sales/(      959.5034*0.5411)
  Match 3                          Ticket sales/(       73.8080*0.5411)
  Match 2 and the Thunderball      Ticket sales/(      106.6115*0.5411)
  Match 1 and the Thunderball      Ticket sales/(       32.8035*0.5411)
  

  (The maximum number of fixed prizes calculated is rounded up to the nearest integer in all cases)

• What about the lottery ball sets and machines that will be used ?
  A different set of machines and balls will be used compared to the main UK lottery - three new machines (there's internal names for them, but they won't be announced to the public) l and eight ball sets (presumably eight * 2 in fact !). The main balls will be numbered 1 to 34 and have white numbers on a dark blue background. The Thunderballs will be numbered 1 to 14 and have white numbers on a dark red background.

• Will there be The National Lottery Thunderball Game Super Draws ?
  Camelot haven't indicated there will be any, but with no rollovers allowed, they're going to have to introduce Super Draws or some other "gimmick" to boost this game, otherwise it will ultimately die.

• Why did Camelot introduce The National Lottery Thunderball Game, when it's clearly far less attractive than the main UK lottery ?
  It's sheer desperation really. Instants scratchcards have fallen to poor sales levels, Camelot's venture with Vernons Easy Play was such a complete disaster that it lasted less than 40 weeks and Camelot committed to an extra £1 billion of money to Good Causes during their 7-year licence, which they're now in danger of falling short of.

• Thunderball, doesn't that ring a bell ?
  If the game looks familiar, it's because Camelot - like they did with the main UK lottery and scratchcards - "stole" the idea from America (the US Powerball in the case of Thunderball). That US game - played across some 20 or so states - is far better though because it plays with 5 balls ranging from 1 to 49 plus a Powerball ranging from 1 to 42 [making it much harder to win the jackpot, leading to many consecutive rollovers] and it also has unlimited rollovers leading to major excitement as the jackpot builds up, sometimes in excess of $100 million ! Sadly, the UK version is a pathetic imitation with smaller ranges for the balls, far lower jackpots and, worst of all, no rollovers at all - all for the same outlay (£1) as the superior main UK lottery !

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