New rules, new results? Changes in the payout structure of the UK national lottery

The UK National Lottery game was introduced in November 1994 as a standard 6/49 lotto game that cost £1 per ticket. Nearly immediately, sales of the game began to fall despite extensive publicity and a variety of inducements, including adding bonus money to the jackpot. By 2013, nominal weekly sales were less than half the level of 1995 sales. Real sales fell by about two-thirds. After extensive study,  the UK National Lottery doubled the nominal price of a ticket for the main lotto-style game from £1 to £2 and made a number of changes to the pay-out structure of smaller prizes in October 2013.  For example, each ticket was entered into a separate raffle-style drawing whereby fifty tickets would win £20,000 each.  The intent of the changes was to reverse the long downward trend in lottery game sales by increasing the jackpot and offering more pay-out opportunities for each ticket. I use draw by draw sales and other data to evaluate bettor response to these changes and find that while ticket sales fell dramatically, total revenue rose. However, the general downward trend in weekly sales was not reversed.  I also find that average jackpot size increased after October 2013 and that rollover frequency increased.  Bettors, though, respond as before to both changes in the jackpot and to the expected value of a ticket.  That is, jackpot and price elasticities are unaffected. Thus, while sales have increased, the long term factors generating a decline in betting are unaffected by the October 2013 changes to the game.