The jackpot for the 2021 Channel Islands Christmas Lottery has reached £400,000 and continues to climb.
Organisers say ticket sales are starting to pick up. They hope the top prize will increase by several hundred thousand pounds and reach the same value as last year.
In 2020, the top prize was just under £700,000, despite ticket sales in Jersey dipping as the island was facing more stringent covid restrictions than Guernsey in the run up to Christmas.
The 2021 tickets went on sale on 4 October. The first prize started at £300,00 and will keep climbing until the draw is held in Jersey on 23 December.
Each ticket costs £2 again this year. The price of a ticket was reduced from £3 to £2 for last year's draw.
Pictured: The cost of a ticket in the Channel Islands Christmas Lottery was put up to £3 in 2018 before being cut to £2 last year and it has been kept at £2 this year.
The increase to £3 a ticket in 2018 was unwelcome to most punters. A survey in 2020 found that 73% of respondents preferred tickets at £2.
Speaking at the time, the Senior Lottery Officer in Guernsey, Jon Taylor, said that customer demand led to the decision to reduce the ticket price and reintroduce a climbing prize.
He said: “These changes reflect the feedback that we have received from islanders who took part in the survey. We hope that in light of this, and the challenges faced by the community and the charity sector this year, these decisions are well received by our players.”
Now - for the second year in a row since ticket prices were reduced back to £2 - lottery agents are reporting increasing sales as the draw date approaches. Some are reporting that sales are "increasing significantly".
Ciara Devlin is Head of Lottery at Guernsey Post, which is responsible for distributing tickets in the Bailiwick. She said: “Sales are picking up across the islands now and we expect the first prize will get up towards last year’s first prize of £696,740 as we sell through our ticket allocation."
Pictured: Tickets for the 2021 Channel Islands Christmas Lottery went on sale at the beginning of October. The draw is in Jersey on 23 December.
Jon Taylor said he was pleased with the improvements made to the local lottery in recent years.
"The number of tickets sold in Guernsey for the 2020 Christmas draw saw an increase year on year, in part as a response to the return of the £2 ticket price, which has been maintained for the 2021 draw. However, last year, sales dipped in Jersey because at the time they were unfortunately heading back into lockdown," said Mr Taylor.
It remains to be seen whether ticket sales will be affected by the additional measures and restrictions announced this week in response to increasing covid cases and the emergence of a new variant. But Mr Taylor hopes that one new initiative will help encourage sales.
“This year we have also introduced an Advent Calendar instant game to complement the traditional Christmas draw game and tickets for this are selling well across the islands. That will help generate even greater returns for worthy causes through our Christmas operations in 2021."
The profits from the Channel Islands Christmas Lottery are distributed among good causes in Guernsey and Jersey. Grow Limited and the Boys' Amalgamated Boxing Club were among the beneficiaries in Guernsey last year.
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