Retired artist Ray Spiller, 71, is so convinced he will win the National Lottery that he has a few bottles of champagne waiting to celebrate.
Since the lottery started 30 years ago, he has always enjoyed participating. But in December, Ray decided to see if people wanted to join a lottery syndicate to buy tickets together and increase their chances of winning.
Ray had expected a few people to show up, but now the number has grown to over 70, forming eight groups in just a few months.
Ray Spiller and his wife Jan, 69, began organising coach trips for their Essex community to visit London theatres, seaside towns and stately homes, and this is where members of Ray’s lottery syndicates first met.
His union groups are so popular that he has a waiting list of candidates and when it reaches nine people, he creates a new one. Ray is the tenth member of each group.
Would-be millionaires know the odds are stacked against them: 45 million to one for every winning jackpot ticket. That’s where syndicates come in.
The premise is simple: pay a bet each month to participate in the group lottery.
A team has a better chance of matching the winning numbers. For example, a group of ten people who pay a £2 stake each for each draw have ten tickets up for grabs to match the winning numbers, rather than just one each. The only difference is that the group members will have to split the prize money between them if they win.
Retired artist Ray Spiller, 70, is so convinced he will win the National Lottery that he has bottles of champagne stashed away for when he does.
The dynamic was even the focus of a BBC television drama, The Syndicate, in which supermarket workers join forces to win the lottery. Ray, who lives in Broomfield, Essex, says: “The big prize is coming up. I tell all the members it’s going to happen.”
However, none of their syndicates have so far won more than £140 on a line (matching four numbers).
How did Ray’s lottery hobby begin? As the country emerged from the haze of Covid lockdowns, Ray and his wife, Jan, 69, began organising coach trips to London theatres, seaside towns and stately homes.
What they thought might have been a few trips a year has turned into a full-time business and the couple is working harder than ever, despite having retired from their jobs as live club performers.
Ray and Jan keep bus travel enthusiasts informed through the Broomfield Bus Travel newsletter. They send it out to 3,600 people each month and last year Ray floated the idea of forming a lottery syndicate amongst subscribers. The rest, as they say, is history.
He now buys ten lottery lines per syndicate group for each draw (Wednesday and Saturday) for four weeks. The result is £16 per member, but it can be less if the syndicate has had a lucky month, as Ray deducts the winnings from the cost of the next round of lines.
If they were playing alone, the odds of members winning the jackpot would be one in 45,057,475 for the £2 stake per play (one ticket). In a group of ten people (ten tickets), they all have a one in 4,505,748 chance, even though they haven’t increased their spending at all.
The married couple is happy with where they live now, so they plan to spend their future earnings on trips for union members.
Ray spends 14-16 hours each month on administrative tasks to keep everything running.
He goes online and chooses the Lucky Dip random generator option, rather than choosing the sequences himself. For complete transparency, he then compiles a document with each syndicate’s numbers over the four weeks and sends it to the group before the first draw. Ray and Jan check whether any of the numbers match after each draw, even if they arrive home late after a bus trip to the capital.
Jan says: “He sits there glued to the computer. I’m like, ‘Here we go again.'” The pair each review half the lines.
“The National Lottery sends me an email to tell me I’ve won. So even if I didn’t check, I’d know,” says Ray. “But we checked on the day of the draw because of the excitement.”
Syndicates regularly match two numbers on dozens of lines (allowing them to enter the Lotto’s Lucky Dip draw for free). They have also won £30 some 66 times.
“We just need a few more zeros!” adds Jan.
One syndicate had an even bigger win a few weeks ago when it matched four numbers and received a prize of £140.
“Sweat started pouring down my neck and I started thinking, ‘This is it!'” Ray says. “I get nervous when the first three numbers match up.”
The National Lottery website recommends syndicates sign an agreement for the “peace of mind” of all members. A document also helps ensure that winnings are tax-exempt, it says. It can prove to the taxman that payments to syndicate members are prizes and not gifts.
Ray’s agreement sets out his address and bank details and says players will receive their payouts within four weeks and that if they win the jackpot, the group will not do any publicity.
‘If the big win comes I have already told the unions that we will hire the County Hotel for the afternoon and I will hand out the cheques. We will have a cream tea for everyone.
One of Ray’s syndicates had a bigger win two weeks ago when they matched four numbers and received a substantial prize of £140.
“Most people want to buy a big seven-bedroom house with a pool, but we’re quite happy living here. It’s nonsense. I’ve always wanted a grandfather clock. And Jan is turning 70 next year, so I’d buy him something special.”
The couple also have made donations to charities a priority: “We’re on our way to getting the air ambulance,” Jan explains. “If we win a lot, we’ll go and give them a check.”
And, as Ray says, “The odds are in favor of the lottery, of course, but one day…”
- Are you a member of a lottery syndicate? Email l.evans@dailymail.co.uk
Trade unions: what you need to know
1. Unions must appoint a manager to select numbers, participate in draws, and collect and distribute funds.
2. There is no limit to the number of people you can have in a syndicate, but profits will be lower as more people join.
3. Agree on how the syndicate will operate before you play. For example, discuss what would happen if the syndicate won the week a member missed a payout. Decide whether the group will go public if they win a big prize.
4. Keep track of who is in the syndicate. This is because lottery winnings are tax-exempt. However, if you don’t keep track and the syndicate wins, it could look like the manager is the winner and is distributing the winnings as gifts to other members. The gifts could be subject to inheritance tax if the syndicate manager dies within seven years and exceeds his tax-free allowances.
5. For added transparency, managers could let the group know what numbers were entered or share photos or screenshots of the tickets to prove they were purchased.
6. Syndicate administrators can update their National Lottery account online to show their status. But if administrators buy tickets in person, they do not need to register.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. This helps us fund This Is Money and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationships to affect our editorial independence.
