No.
In a lottery I pay £10. I might win £50. I might win £10m. I might win £0. My £10 goes either way.
With Premium Bonds, I invest £25. My £25 might win £0, £25, or £1m. I keep my £25. Hence it’s not gambling.
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I think I will leave you to it. Have a good day.
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A premium bond, in theory, has no other value than a reusable lottery ticket.
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And quite a low return lottery ticket at that, given the prize pool is only a % return of interest on all the money invested.
A premium bond is only worth its face value. It’s literally just a savings account that pays a 0% interest rate and has a separate lottery function equal to the interest rate that prizes accrue at (IMO).
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Agreed. I do get the point @jo is making here. There’s always been a bone of contention with bonds v lottery. Yes, your investment remains and you keep your ‘stake’, but at its original value that is otherwise going to lose its value over time unless you win (and you win by having your number drawn in, um, a lottery-type way).
So I think @jo makes a valid point, but I do consider it a lottery if bonds are held over a longer period of time without ‘winning’. Unless you win little and often or the big money (of which chances are substantially higher the more you ‘invest’), for me savings/stocks/shares wins, particularly if you don’t have a lot of money in savings/stocks/shares or a lot of disposable income.
Personally, I don’t consider bonds an ‘investment’ - certainly not at lower amounts - but each to their own of course per above where individual circumstances apply.
Best of luck to everyone on the next draw!
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I’m also being pedantic about it. I just do it for a bit of fun on the off chance I win, I’m not expecting to become rich off of it.
Premium Bonds make up less than 5% of my savings so it’s not the end of the world if I don’t win anything.
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You might not put much in but plenty do, in the vain hope of winning a big prize.
I agree with earlier comments that it’s really only worth it, to avoid additional tax.
You need a large pot of money and good luck to make anything and the problem being that most people don’t make anything or very little, and they would make more money in conventional savings.
As a product that plays on people’s desires and hope to win rich, it really works as an idea. It’s absolutely a lottery in principle, you just don’t lose your stake.
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£100 
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Nothing 
nada, zilch, zero, nil.
my son’s £100 better off this month, lucky devil!
£150 for me. 1 x £100 and 2 x £25.
Nothing for me this month, ah well!
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I got nothing, last win was in June, so I’m due a win