Beat the Euromillions price hike to £2.50

The Euromillions draw now costs more to enter - and your chances of winning have shrunk too. It's a kick in the teeth for those who like a regular flutter, and felt they were already spending enough on it. However, there is a way to beat the hike.

The cost of entering Euromillions has gone up 50p, to £2,50 per line. To add insult to injury, there was also another number added to the lucky stars, so that the chances of winning the jackpot have shrunk even further from 1:117 million to an astonishingly remote 1:140 million.

Camelot has argued that the odds of winning any prize haven't changed - and remain at one in 13. Anyone who likes the idea of winning small, therefore, may want to take the 50p hike on the chin.

It has also added a few whistles and bells, so that there will be more promotional draws and millionaire maker events - so the number of guaranteed UK millionaires will hit 208 a year (double the previous number).

Camelot has also pointed out that as with the National Lottery, making it harder to win the jackpot will mean more rollovers, and therefore more massive jackpots.

There will be those, however, who resent having to pay more for less opportunity to win the mega-millions - regardless of the additional smaller prizes on offer.

The alternative

Fortunately, there is an alternative: instead of playing the lottery, you can bet on the outcome.

The big advantage is that online lottery betting provider, Lottoland.co.uk, has frozen its price at £2 - as well as offering new customers a free line for Friday's jackpot of over £100 million.

However, there are two drawbacks. First, although you can win the jackpot by betting on all the right numbers - and the smaller prizes by getting some of them right, it won't include you in the Millionaire Maker events.

And second, you won't be contributing to National Lottery good causes. This may not usually keep you up at night, but if you were inspired by the enormous difference that National Lottery funding has made to the UK's Olympics and Paralympics teams, it may have taken some of the sting out of playing the Lottery and losing.

But what do you think? Do you play the Euromillions? And will the price hike make a difference to you? Let us know in the comments.