Feeling National Lottery Lucky?

Did you know that it’s nearly 20 years ago that the first ever National Lottery draw took place?! Wow, neither can we, and no, here at the Oakeley Arms Hotel & Holiday Cottages we haven’t managed to hit the jackpot either!

The news hit this week that the price of a lottery ticket will DOUBLE; from £1 for a standard flutter, to £2. It seems like a huge price increase, but the lottery organisers Camelot insist that the rise is fair because there hasn’t been an increase in almost 20 years. They have also unveiled a new range of increased prizes – the scoop for three numbers will rise from £10 to £25, and matching four balls will net you £100 instead of an average £60.

But, if you’re a little bit grumpy at having to shell out more for your weekly flutter, there are alternatives. You could try the new Health Lottery, which starts at just £1 per play, or what about the famous Irish Lotto; with the jackpot never below a cool €2 million.

So, what if you actually won the lottery? And no, we don’t just mean a measly £25, but what if you hit the jackpot and won big-time. What would you do with the pennies? Pay off the mortgage? Treat your friends to the holiday of a lifetime? Help out your family? Well, here are some extravagant and bonkers ideas to blow a million or two………

• Buy your own island – join the celeb set who boast their own paradise island and imagine spending summer’s at paradise – and not just your own holiday pad by the sea, but your own whole island….. check out this beauty near Fiji but you’ll need about £2 million in the bank to make it yours www.privateislandsonline.com/islands/nanuya-island-resort but it does come with 4 luxury villas, so there’s plenty of room for the in-laws.
• Buy a flat in London – where is the UK’s most expensive postcode? If you fancy a pad at London’s One Hyde Park, an exclusive residential complex in the capital’s most sought after address, you’ll need at least £20 million pounds. For the luxury penthouse you won’t have any change from a whopping £136 million! But you can say that one of your neighbours is Kylie Minogue and the other is the Prime Minister of Qatar. Check out the incredible design and interiors here www.onehydepark.com/#/show-apartment
• Buy a weekend motor – no we don’t mean a cheap-to-run Nissan Micra…. The Bugatti Veyron is among the world’s most expensive cars at a whopping £1 million for a standard version and £1.5 million for special edition. Mind you, it’s also one of the fastest, with a top speed of 254 miles per hour – so you’ll get to Tesco in record time.

By Gons on WikiCommons

• Charter a luxury jet – well, if you won the lottery then you could buy your own plane but who wants the hassle of learning how to drive it and park it when you could be sitting in luxury drinking G&T’s? A round the world trip on one of the world’s top aeroplanes will only set you back £500,000. Bargain! And you’ll avoid the queues at check-in…..
• Fly First Class – who wants to be squashed in with the masses when you can fly in luxury. If your lottery win won’t quite stretch to your own jet, then a ticket for one of the world’s most expensive first class flights will be the next best thing. Singapore Airlines offer not just first class seats, but first class suits. Each private suite one has full sized beds, 23inch television and entertainment system and smellies by Givenchy and Ferragamo. A snip at just £4,500 for a single fare.
• Have a glass of fizz – if you won the lottery, you could ditch the bottle of Blue Nun and indulge in the world’s most expensive champagne. Pick up a bottle of Pernod-Ricard Perrier-Jouet for a mere £31,000. And if you’re not a fan of bubbles you could splash out on a bottle of 1811 Château d’Yquem, which was sold at auction last year for a whopping £75,000.

By remi_inconnu on Wiki Commons

• Head out for dinner – but forget the local chippy; if you’re a lottery winner, the world is quite literally your oyster. The most expensive restaurants in the world are usually those with more Michelin stars than you can shake a stick at. Masa Sushi Restaurant in New York is the priciest eatery in the USA. Prices start at around £400 per person. You could fly there in your private jet…..
• Watch the time – Rolex is renowned as one of the world’s most luxurious brands, and although you can pick up a Rolex watch for as little as a few hundred pounds, if you really want the world to know about your lottery win then you’ll need to splash a bit more cash. The most expensive Rolex ever made had a retail price of £300,000.

By Walli1912 on WikiCommons

Now don’t forget to buy your ticket…..after all, it could be you!

Read full details about the National Lottery ticket double here (from the BBC)

By UPN on sxc.hu