Is there an Internet alternative to the national lottery

A. There are several lottery or bingo type games on the Internet that are free to play and offer cash prizes.

Q. Can you recommend any

A. The most popular Internet lottery game is probably Bananalotto, which claims an average of 500,000 regular players. It operates in a very similar way to the national lottery in that you choose six numbers and a bonus ball and you can win up to 1 million if all seven numbers come up trumps. Bananalotto also offers several prizes for upwards of three correct numbers.

All you have to do to enter the prize draw is register on the site, and pick seven numbers (or you can select a random numbers option which chooses the numbers for you) from an onscreen box before 5.30pm every day. You will then be emailed at 6pm with the results for that day. Since the site launched it has not had to pay out the jackpot, its highest claim has been for 100,000.

Other popular lottery sites include Grab.com, which offers a cash prize of 1 million for guessing the correct numbers every day. If you’re a regular user you will become increasingly aware of its "one off" offers that are basically more cash prizes on top of the 1 million jackpot.

The Daily Draw also offers 1 million in prize money daily. As yet both of these sites have escaped the maximum big payout.

Other lottery sites include www.mouselotto.com, href="http://www.pluslotto.com/">www.pluslotto.com, href="http://www.ukfreelotto.com/">www.ukfreelotto.com, href="http://www.moneyballs.com/">www.moneyballs.com, href="http://www.lukilottery.com/">www.lukilottery.com and href="http://www.uklottery.co.uk/">www.uklottery.co.uk
all offer large cash prizes.

Q. Can you play the national lottery online

A. Not at the moment although it is believed that it may be introduced at some stage. The national lottery does however, have a website - www.national-lottery.co.uk - but it just provides information on its rules and regulations and for lottery anoraks it provides statistics on winning numbers.

If you really take the lottery seriously you can investigate the science of number selection at www.cybergeezer.com/lottery or alternatively if you just find it difficult selecting your numbers every week - there is help at hand. You can have your numbers selected for you at www.lucky4some.co.uk. You can play the Irish lottery online at http://www.luckyirish.com

Q. How do such sites finance themselves

A. Usually through advertising - once you've visited a daily lotto site it is easy to become addicted and through selling email lists - as you usually have to give out your personal details when registering to use a site. Some sites are also brand sponsored, which will help the site to pay out big money. A good way of keeping advertisers and sponsors happy is exercised by Bananalotto - when you register to use the site a registration is not complete until you click on one of the banner ads offered to you onscreen - this then takes you to a sponsor's website. A registration confirmation window will appear onscreen once you've entered this site so you can return to Bananalotto if you wish to.

Q. Are there other games you can play online that offer cash prizes

A. There are other ways of trying your hand and obtaining money for nothing. One popular way is to visit the Lycos site and play Fetch (www.fetch.lycos.co.uk) - if the dog unearths four matching objects you win 10,000. Alternatively you can play live bingo at www.uproar.co.uk, predict the outcome of four sporting events at www.sports.com/team/comps/wildcard.html and win 1,000.

At www.tombola.com you can indulge in lots of online games for money, it even has an online scratch card. If you're a fan of pub quizzes and trivia is your bag check out www.jamba.co.uk you can win 1,000 very quickly if you know the answers.

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By Karen Anderson