UK National Lottery Subscription Notice

Camelot has always offered a subscription service for UK Natiomal Lottery players, but because lottery retailers ("middle men" who receive 5% of the stake) would be cut out from the revenue stream, Camelot have never advertised the subscription service in newspapers, magazines, billboards, at retailers or on the television. It's as if they don't want people to pay them money in advance to play the lottery !

In March 1998, Camelot issued a news leaflet to all UK National Lottery subscribers, notifying them of a change to the subscription service. The leaflet is reproduced below without permission.

News about the subscription service

New direct debit option for subscription payments

The Subscription Service continues to provide an easy and accessible way for players to take part in The National Lottery. We are now delighted to be able to offer you the option of choosing the easy way to pay for your Subscriptions.

Direct Debit allows you to pay for your new Subscription in instalments, with each payment deducted from your bank account every 13 draws over your chosen Subscription period. When you return your renewal form and Direct Debit mandate, we will send you your Subscription Certificate. This will give details of your instalment amounts and debit dates.

Details will be included on your new renewal form, which will include a Direct Debit mandate for you to complete. If you wish, you can of course, continue to pay for your Subscription by cheque or Postal Order.

More chances to win

In line with the familiar National Lottery playslip, we are now able to offer you the option of playing up to seven sets of numbers with a single Subscription. New forms will feature seven boards and therefore, if you currently have more than two sets of numbers in the draw, you may renew them all on the one form, making playing several lines much simpler.

The new forms

To take account of the Direct Debit option and the new 7-board option, we have redesigned our literature. A new leaflet, 'Subscribe Today - It's The Easy Way To Play' will provide detailed information about The National Lottery Game and our Subscription Service. The Subscription Renewal form and Subscription Certificate have also been redesigned. In addition, in our last Customer Satisfaction Survey, many of you asked us to simplify the Subscription Application form to make it easier to complete. We hope you will find the form more user friendly and less complicated than our previous forms!

You can obtain these forms by calling the Subcription Line on 0645 125 000 or by writing to:

The National Lottery,
P.O. Box 251,
Watford
WD1 8GD

If you currently hold an active Subscription to The National Lottery, your next renewal notice will automatically contain the revised renewal form, Subscriptions information leaflet and new Direct Debit mandate. If you have any queries regarding your renewal or current Subscription, please call the Subscription Processing Department on 01923 425 086.

Gifts

Have you ever wondered what to buy someone as a totally different kind of present? A Subscription to The National Lottery is an ideal gift and the new Subscription forms have an improved gift section for you to purchase Subscriptions for your friends and relatives (aged 16 or over). In this section, you may also add a simple message to personalise your gift (I wonder if this can be rude ?!) and this will appear on the Subscription Certificate that we post to your nominated gift recipient. (Unfortunately, the Direct Debit facility cannot be used for purchasing Subscriptions as gifts and payments must be by cheque or Postal Order.)

We hope you will enjoy the added benefits to playing by Subscription. Remember, subscribe today and 'It Could Be You'.

My further notes:

There's some important restrictions to reinforce about subscriptions:

You have to phone or write to Camelot to receive a subscription form.
You have to state a UK postal address to send the Subscription Certificate to.
You have to pay via a UK cheque, UK Postal Order or a UK direct debit mandate (the latter is a new facility from March 1998 onwards).
You can only play up to 7 sets of numbers per draw per subscription for up to a year.
It appears that you can subscribe in multiples of 13 draws (this has yet to be confirmed).

Subscriptions taken out prior to March 1998 had the following additional restrictions:

You could only pay by a UK cheque or Postal Order.
The subscription form only allowed a maximum of 2 sets of 6 numbers per draw to be entered, which meant you had to fill in multiple subscription forms (and separate cheques !) if you wanted to play more often than that via subscriptions.
You could only subscribe for 6 or 12 months' worth of draws.

Even from March 1998, the following still can't be done when subscribing:

Payment by credit card, cash or non-UK cheque.
Payment via the Internet, fax or telephone.
Subscribing from outside the UK.
Subscribing for more than 7 tickets per draw per subscription form.
Subscribing for more than one year at a time (to be confirmed).
Lucky Dip (obviously would have to be a fixed set of random numbers across all the draws).

Camelot also released a leaflet in March 1998 to the general public called Subscribe Today - It's The Easy Way To Play. However, it appears that retailers predictably do not stock this leaflet and you have to phone up Camelot to request a copy !