Lottery change plans for bill payment
Last Updated: Friday 1st October 2010, 23:01
Plans by lottery organisers to accept bill payments at lottery terminals looked like they were over before they began when lottery regulators turned down the proposal. However, not to be beaten, the lottery organisers have made some changes to the plan in an effort to appease the regulators. If the changes are accepted it would mean when you bought lottery tickets, you could pay bills too, top up your mobile phone on the brand new bill payment service.
With concern about European competition law in the forefront, last month the National Lottery commission turned down this proposal from the National Lottery but now they have allowed the lottery to extend public consultation by two weeks.
The lottery organisers are clearly keen to see a move like this come into play, allowing lottery players to do more than buy lottery tickets when they see the crossed fingers sign.
It does look as though they may still run into trouble from other companies, such as Paypoint who already offer a bill payment service in shops – possibly the same shops that also have lottery terminals. We can see why the National Lottery Commission has such concerns.
The consultation process will run for the first two weeks of September but we still think that they best way to buy lottery tickets is online! You can sign up for an account with the National Lottery, store your lottery numbers online and the National Lottery will even send you an email if you win!