How Likely Are You to Win the National Lottery
A huge number of people in the UK regularly buy tickets for the National Lottery, hoping to win a life-changing sum of money. This blog post looks at the odds of winning the lottery, so read it if you want to know your chances of winning.
Odds of winning the lottery in the UK explained © PauloDiniz, Pixabay
An Overview of the National Lottery
The UK’s National Lottery launched in 1994. It’s owned by the government and has been operated by Allwyn Entertainment since 1 February 2024. The previous operator, the Camelot Group, had run the lottery from day one.
People who are aged 18 and above can buy tickets both in-store and at online lottery sites. The UK Gambling Commission regulates the National Lottery, ensures that it continues to run properly, and provides a safe, secure gaming experience for players.
There are a few games offered by the National Lottery. If you win a prize, it will be paid out in full unless it’s a Set for Life win, which is paid in instalments. All cash prizes are tax-free.
Every week, the National Lottery generates a large amount of revenue from ticket sales. The list below shows where the money from tickets goes, with approximate percentages given.
- 53% to the prize fund
- 25% to good causes
- 12% goes to the UK government as lottery duty
- 4% goes to retailers as commission
- 4% covers operating costs
- 1% is retained as profit
The National Lottery has generated significant money for good causes since its inception in 1994. As of February 2024, nearly 30 years after the first draw, more than £48 billion has been distributed to various charities, community projects and non-profit organisations.
Winning the National Lottery
There are six main games currently offered by the National Lottery. In no particular order, they are as follows:
- Lotto – Draws take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and in a typical week, two millionaires are made. Tickets cost £2 and you pick six numbers from 1-59.
- Euro Millions – Draws take place on Tuesdays and Fridays with tickets costing £2.50. You select five numbers from 1-50 and two Lucky Stars from 1-12. The Euro Millions has the biggest cash prize by far since it’s played by people in nine countries and a few other regions; it can be as high as nine figures.
- Set for Life – With this game, you can win £10,000 a month for 30 years. To play, you purchase a ticket costing £1.50 and choose five numbers from 1-47 along with a Life Ball from 1-10. Draws take place on Mondays and Thursdays.
- Thunderball – This game gives you the chance to win a top prize of £500,000 that isn’t shared with anyone else. Tickets cost just £1 and to play, you pick five numbers from 1-39 and a Thunderball from 1-14. Draws take place every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
- Lotto Hot Picks – Played alongside the main Lotto, Lotto Hot Picks has various prizes for matching fewer numbers. To play, choose a game (Pick 1 up to Pick 5) and pick that many numbers from 1-59. Match all your numbers to win. If you match fewer numbers, i.e. you choose Pick 3 but only match two numbers, you won’t win. For the top prize of £350,000, you have to choose Pick 5 and match all five numbers.
- Euro Millions Hot Picks – The Euro Millions Hot Picks is similar to the Lotto Hot Picks in that it runs alongside the Euro Millions and has bigger prizes for matching fewer numbers. The top payout is £1 million.
To win any National Lottery game, enough numbers on your ticket need to match the numbers that come up in the draw. The range of numbers and the number you get to pick depend on the game you’re playing.
The Odds of Winning National Lottery Games
So, what are the odds of winning the UK lottery? In this section, we’ll look at your chances of winning the top prize for each of the six lottery games we listed earlier.
Each game has multiple prizes; the bigger it is, the less likely you are to win it. Many people play National Lottery games hoping to win the biggest prizes, but some of the smaller payouts can still be worthwhile.
- Lotto – The top prize is a jackpot of 9.79% of ticket sales, and its value depends on how many tickets are sold. To win, you have to match all six numbers on your ticket. The odds of winning are 1 in 45,057,474.
- Euro Millions – To win the top prize, you have to match five numbers and two Lucky Stars. If you do this, you’ll have beaten odds of 1 in 139,838,160.
- Set for Life – For you to win the Set for Life draw, you have to match the first five numbers drawn, as well as the Life Ball. The odds of doing this are 1 in 15,339,390.
- Thunderball – Winning the Thunderball’s top payout requires you to match five numbers and the Thunderball. If you want to do this, you’ll have to beat odds of 1 in 8,060,598.
- Lotto Hot Picks – For the Lotto Hot Picks, the chances of winning the top prize are 1 in 834,398. You do this by matching all five main numbers on your Pick 5 ticket.
- Euro Millions Hot Picks – To win the top prize of the Euro Millions Hot Picks, you need to choose Pick 5 and match all five numbers. This has odds of 1 in 2,118,760.
As you can see, the odds of winning the lottery can be extremely low regarding the top prizes for each game. What’s also worth pointing out is that prizes are often shared. If two people each have a winning ticket for the Lotto’s jackpot, they’ll share it.
Because the odds of winning the top prize are so low, theoretically speaking there’s a good chance just one person will win it. If no one wins it, it rolls over to the following week (there’s a limit on how many times this can happen).
But given that so many people buy lottery tickets in the UK, it’s not uncommon for multiple people to end up sharing the top prize. In fact, the greatest number of people to do this is 133, which happened on 14 January 1995.
In this case, the total jackpot was £16,293,830, but since it was shared amongst 133 people, each winner received £122,510. It’s worth pointing out that each National Lottery game has several prizes, which can have hundreds or thousands of winners.
Odds of Winning Anything
The National Lottery’s official website has full details about the odds and payouts for every single game. It also lists the odds you’ll win any cash prizes when playing one of the games. These are as follows:
- Lotto – 1 in 9.3.
- Euro Millions – 1 in 13
- Set for Life – 1 in 12.4
- Thunderball – 1 in 13
The Lotto isn’t the cheapest of the National Lottery games with tickets costing £2, but it does have the best odds for winning any cash prize. If you want to start playing any combination of the games, looking up the odds, payouts and how to win is a good idea.
Summary
You should now be able to answer the question: ‘What are the odds of winning the lottery?’ The odds vary depending on the game, though each one’s top prize is very large, ranging from 1 in 2.1 million to a staggering 1 in 139 million.
But don’t let such huge odds put you off. You can still play the National Lottery and win some of the smaller prizes that have more favourable odds. As the saying goes, the chances of winning are still slim, but you have to be in it to win it.
