Ssshhh ... even the rich buy lottery tickets

LONDON - Millionaires are more likely than poorer people to buy tickets in Britain's National Lottery in the hope of winning huge jackpots, according to new research that overturns the conventional wisdom that most tickets are bought by beneficiaries and the low paid.

When the lottery jackpots, sales of tickets increase most in Kensington, Chelsea and Altrincham, a wealthy suburb of Manchester, says research by the lottery operator, Camelot.

They also rise sharply in Canary Wharf, home of City banks and law firms where salaries are among the highest in Europe, and in Harrogate, the affluent Yorkshire town.

In wealthy areas there is a steep rise in sales too via interactive television or the internet - when it's a jackpot.

"Play among [the wealthy] is particularly sensitive to the size of the jackpots," said Ben Rosier, for Camelot, the lottery company. "You know the jackpot is building when you see queuing on the streets of Harrogate, Hampstead and Henley on a Friday afternoon. With property prices in those areas going through the roof it's easier for a winner who wishes to remain anonymous to disguise their win."

Wealthy winners are indeed more likely to hide the fact they have won the lottery, pretending that they have inherited money or received a big bonus at work. They are also more likely to insist on anonymity. "The impression among the middle classes is that it is people lower down the social scale who win it, but it isn't," said one source close to the lottery.

"It's just that they are less able to disguise their win. If you are a sheet metal worker it's going to be less easy to hide the extra millions than someone who works in the City."

Sales rocketed in wealthy areas for Friday's £64 million ($180 million) Euromillions jackpot, according to Tesco supermarket chain. In February when the jackpot reached £125 million ($350 million), sales increased most at its Kensington and Chelsea branches.

Around 70 per cent of adults in Britain play the lottery regularly and 1800 millionaires have been created since the game was launched. Birmingham has produced the most millionaires and jackpot winners.

But the luckiest place in Britain to buy a lottery ticket is Essex, with Ilford and Romford producing a higher proportion of winning entries per adult than anywhere else in the country.

- INDEPENDENT