Christmas Lottery tickets to go on sale from today

Although the top prize will not reach the heights of previous years, there are more smaller prizes available from the scratchcard part of the ticket, with the top one being £5,000, and there will be an additional 65 prizes in the draw ranging from £500 to £50,000.

The top prize will start at £300,000 and rise as more tickets are sold. Tickets will cost £2.

The second prize is £50,000 and there will be five £10,000 prizes, 15 of £2,500, 10 of £1,000 and 25 prizes of £500.

All proceeds are distributed to local charities by the Social Investment Fund.

‘The Christmas Lottery is the crown jewel of the Channel Island Lottery games and although all the proceeds from every game in the portfolio raises funds for good causes. Christmas seems to resonate most with islanders and that’s probably because there is a chance to win a life changing amount of money with this game,’ said senior lottery officer Jon Taylor.

In recent years the top prize has reached £1m and over. If all 1.2m tickets are sold this year Mr Taylor said that it will climb to £805,000.

Guernsey has taken the first prize for the last four years and Guernsey Post, which acts as distribution agent, is hoping for the same again.

‘We are proud to be able to distribute the Christmas game to our reseller network and it would be fantastic if we can keep the momentum going and have another Guernsey ticket winning the first prize,’ said head of lottery for Guernsey Post Ciara Devlin.

The draw will take place in Jersey this year and once again will be broadcast on the ITV Channel News programme at 6pm on 23 December.

Mr Taylor hoped that the £2 ticket price would encourage islanders to buy in volume again this year. ‘It’s difficult balancing the needs of everyone but we believe we now have the right approach.’