Winning Streak: Was there ever any real game to be played?

RoTelly · 25-05-2026 01:45PM #1

I often wondered why they didn't just randomly apply prizes to each player.

The rules of the finally wheel got me thinking about this.

There was a 500K segment (was it ever won?)

The 250K segment grew each week when it wasn't one but I am fairly certain that it took the place of a 100K segment and then 50K before smaller amount began to be removed always felt this was a cheat. Why not remove the 10K segments first.

Perhaps I am wrong and the 10K was removed first, they should have remove the amount won and replaced with 250K.

squonk · 25-05-2026 09:10PM

absolutely, they should’ve just randomly applied a final amount to each player. about as much of a gaming it as teaching a frog to soccer. It filled up an hour and it was lots of publicity for the National Lottery. I do think it cost them a fair amount of money though so the greedy bastards that took it over just decided to bin the game. The lottery has gone to shite now and winning streak is the thing of the past.

actuallylike · 26-05-2026 12:01AM

There might be a tax reason for it. Like how you have to answer those dense questions for SuperValu competitions. "What colour is grass. Red or green. Hint: it's not red"

Competitions are treated differently than lotteries apparently.

MrMusician18 · 26-05-2026 12:55AM

It was a 30min long advertisement for national lottery games.

Winning streak itself was entirely a game of chance not a game of skill and yes, they could have randomly assigned prizes to winners and not changed the outcome. They'd have sold far fewer tickets if they'd done that.

RoTelly · 26-05-2026 08:59AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124499682#Comment_124499682

That's a regulation from ComReg, it is more strict in the north that's why RTÉ competitions aren't available there.

All winnings are tax free, regardless of the game.

eastie17 · 26-05-2026 09:31AM

wasn’t there some electronic robot as part of the game? Used to fly around a virtual map to open up questions or something?

RoTelly · 26-05-2026 09:32AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124500029#Comment_124500029

Yes at one point they had a game with a robot, but no questions, just the options to choose where he goes to get prizes from the map. He had a name AFAIR.

osarusan · 26-05-2026 09:44AM

I remember that at some point about 25 years ago, one part of the game involved climbing up a board in some way, and you could either try 'big' or 'small' (or whatever the terms were) - small was less ambitious but guaranteed some progress, while big allowed you to climb faster, but also had the possibility of not progressing at all.

One old woman was only one place from the top, so it absolutely made sense to go 'small' and be guaranteed to get to the top, but it had been drilled into her to go 'big' every time, and she wasn't for changing.

I remember the bemused look of the presenter as he tried and failed to explain that 'small' was enough in this instance.

loyatemu · 26-05-2026 11:34AM

it's part of the Lottery so I assume it had to be fully random. The games were there to provide some entertainment, just handing a random amount to each contestant wouldn't be much of a TV show.

Glaceon · 26-05-2026 11:45AM

I seem to recall that there was a minimum prize. If you didn't reach that amount during play, you'd get it anyway.

Grab All Association · 26-05-2026 11:53AM

Imagine having to gamble to go on a gameshow in the first place.

Ireland is a very small market, but a gameshow that offered the potential prize like €5,000-€10,000 where the general public can apply to be on was always possible.