lottery chamagneDavid Jones/PA Archive/Press Association Images

The National Lottery website will finally ban people from buying invalid tickets. Thousands of people have unwittingly buying their tickets online, not knowing that their circumstances and a quirk in the vast tome of rules means that they would never be able to claim any winnings.

So who are these people, and why were the tickets invalid?

Overseas banned

A twist in National Lottery rules means that if you are overseas when you buy a ticket online, it's not valid. This means that people who are based abroad cannot enter and win, and even if you're on holiday when you buy a ticket, it's not valid. You have to be physically in the UK or the Isle of Man when you buy it. If you are elsewhere at the time, any winnings will not be paid out to you.

The general rule has always been that if any country has its own lottery, then a UK National Lottery ticket wouldn't be valid. This means they have never applied when the purchaser has been based somewhere like Spain or the US. However, to make things clearer, from December 2010, Camelot changed the rules so that tickets wouldn't be valid anywhere outside the UK and the Isle of Man.

North East is luckiest in Lotto

  • <p> The map was commissioned to mark Tuesday night's EuroMillions roll-over which is now a staggering &pound;138 million - the fifth biggest jackpot ever offered in the UK.</p>
  • <p> Should anyone scoop the jackpot, their wealth will be slightly less than Europe's biggest Lottery winners Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Ayrshire. The husband and wife made the headlines in July when they won &pound;161,653,000, thanks to several rollovers.</p>
  • <p> Boasting 164 National Lottery millionaires, one in 14,211 North East residents has now banked a seven-figure jackpot prize. Winners Paul and Christine Goldie from Washington, near Sunderland, pocketed &pound;3,581,481 after their numbers came up on Christmas Day last year.</p>
  • <p> The Millionaire Map, which includes both publicity and non-publicity winners, is based on the number of millionaires created per adult population. One man who did go public with his winnings was Wayne Hughes from Holyhead on Anglesey, north Wales. The shop worker scooped &pound;1,117,779 last August and even had the winning numbers tattooed on his arm.</p>
  • <p> The region with the fewest millionaire jackpot winners was Northern Ireland, where only 53 seven-figure or more winners were created.</p>
  • <p> Wales has seen 179 millionaires - one person in 14,502 - created over the last 16 years. Rugby fans Terry Roberts, Mike Williams, Lance Gifford and Gerwyn Jones, from the Rhondda Valley in south Wales, split &pound;4,091,609 in April this year.</p>

Website

The website has always featured a number of warnings. However, it has always been possible to bypass these and buy a ticket anyway. Now finally Camelot has confirmed it will use location software to block access for anyone outside of the UK or Isle of Man from 23 April.

It has emailed customers saying: "As you are aware, to play National Lottery games online or by text you must be a UK or Isle of Man resident and be physically located in the UK or Isle of Man when buying a ticket. If you play by Direct Debit, not only must you be physically located in the UK or Isle of Man when setting up your Direct Debit but also when making amendments to it, including buying additional tickets, or changing your numbers or payment details."

Interestingly, the rules also entitle the National Lottery to reclaim any prizes that have already been awarded to people breaking the rules. If they thought the negative press they received from refusing payouts was bad, brace yourself from the first time they decide to claw back someone's winnings!

More stories