It's (not) you

It is easily the richest part of Britain, known for its sky-high property prices and legions of millionaires.

But when it comes to making serious money from the National Lottery the right numbers obstinately refuse to come up for players in the South-East.

The latest figures from Camelot show

how the region - and London in particular - has failed to win its fair share of jackpots. The trend has mystified Camelot as there is no evidence that Londoners play Lotto and the other games any less than people from the rest of the country.

Research by the Evening Standard reveals that not one of the 20 biggest identified winners in the past decade has been a Londoner. Only four of the top 20 winning tickets have been bought in the the South-East - one in Hastings, one in Surrey, one in Reading and one in Essex.

Camelot's analysis of wins of more than £10,000 last year shows the big cities of the North and the Midlands dominating the list.

The "luckiest" city was Newcastle, with winnings of £38.8 million, followed by Manchester on £27.6 million, Chester on £21.3 million and Birmingham on £18.5 million. In 2002 Stoke topped the list with £34.5 million. In that year Manchester came second again, followed by Birmingham.

Since the Lottery started, in 1994, the luckiest town per head of population has been Grimsby, where 10 of its 110,000 residents have shared jackpots worth £26.2 million.

Since 2001, only south-east London and Kingston have appeared on the top 10 "lucky" lists, despite Greater London accounting for more than 15 per cent of the population.

Of the top jackpot millionaires last year who chose publicity, only one - Hazel Grange from Surrey with £4.77 million - was from the South-East.

The big winners this year have been Iris Jeffrey, a retired home help from Belfast; Marion Richardson from Gateshead, and Thea Bristow, a former factory worker from Torquay. Rapist Ioworth Hoare, won £7 million after buying a ticket in Middlesbrough.

About 70 per cent of the adult population plays a National Lottery game.

One Camelot official said: "Winning £1 million is not so much of a big deal in the South-East, given what has happened to property prices. So maybe more people in the region choose not to go down the publicity route."

However, the Lottery can be seen as a tax on the poor, with working-class people happier than professionals to test the one-in-14-million odds. Londoners may also be more careless - there were more unclaimed prizes in the capital than anywhere else.