On this page:
- Unclaimed Prizes
- The best way to play the Lottery
- How to win the Lottery
- The odds of winning the lottery jackpot
- Which jackpot are you more likely to win
- Euromillions Raffle
- How to pick Lottery numbers
- Is winning the lottery fate
- Numerology
- How to win a BIG Jackpot
In the UK Lottery, the balls are exactly 2 inches in diameter and weigh exactly 80g each. They are carefully manufactured, to exacting standards, and regularly checked and tested by the National Weights & Measures Laboratory. Each ball is exactly the same as every other ball and if any deviation is identified the balls are replaced.
There can be no bias, no "heavier" ball that comes up more often than others. The selection of the balls by the Lottery machine is totally random... the draw is done live on National TV with the whole Nation as witness.
Unclaimed Prizes
In just the last 6 months there are 16 major unclaimed prizes of over £50,000 each and there will be countless other smaller amounts remaining unclaimed. Some of the unclaimed prizes include a ticket winning £3,681,197 another winning £1,000,000 and another winning £616,198. The total of the 16 major unclaimed prizes is £7,750,000... almost 8 million pounds!
Click here to see the current list of unclaimed prizes
These are people like you and me who have bought their Lottery Ticket from a shop - and then lost the ticket, or not realised they had won and thrown it away.
Imagine... if you knew you had won a lot of money but had lost the Lottery Ticket!
Don't risk that happening to you - see the following...
The best way to play the Lottery
The best way to play the lottery is online, through the official website of the UK National Lottery. There are over 3 million of us doing this:
- Never forget to place your entry - if you play online and enter for up to 6 weeks, they email you to remind you to play again
- It's impossible to lose your ticket - there is currently over £5,000,000 of unclaimed prizes. FIVE MILLION POUNDS that people have won and not claimed. Imagine if your numbers came up but you had lost your ticket!
- They email you when you win - They check
your ticket automatically and when you win, the Lottery send you an
email like this
Wow!
How to win the Lottery
In the UK Lotto you pick 6 numbers and win the lottery jackpot if you get all 6 numbers correct. The chances of winning the jackpot are millions to one against but there is no other way on earth of getting the chance to win millions of pounds for a stake of just £1!
Odds of winning the jackpot in the Lotto Draw
The chances of getting one number from your 6 selections in Lotto are 6 in 49 (or 6/49), the chances of picking 2 correct numbers are 6/49 multiplied by 5/48 = a one in 78 chance.
If we continue this calculation for all 6 balls, the odds of winning the lotto jackpot are 6/49 x 5/48 x 4/47 x 3/46 x 2/45 x 1/44 which works out at a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of winning the lottery jackpot.
Let's call it a 1 in 14,000,000 chance of winning "a few million pounds" in the Lotto Draw
Odds of winning the jackpot in the Thunderball Draw
This is calculated by: 5/34 x 4/33 x 3/32 x 2/31 x 1/30 x 1/14 = 1 in 3,895,584
More or less a 1 in 4,000,000 chance of winning £250,000 on Thunderball
Odds of winning the jackpot in the Daily Play Draw
7/27 x 6/26 x 5/25 x 4/24 x 3/23 x 2/22 x 1/21 = 888,030
A 1 in 900,000 chance of winning £30,000 in the Daily Play draw
Odds of winning the jackpot in the Euromillions Draw
5/50 x 4/49 x 3/48 x 2/47 x 1/46 x 2/9 x 1/8 = 76,275,360
A 1 in 76,000,000 chance of winning many millions of pounds in Euromillions
From Friday 13 November 2009 each entry in the Euromillions draw includes an entry into the new Euromilions Raffle - guaranteeing a UK player £1 million every week.
Buy your Euromillions Rollover Jackpot ticket online now - before you forget...
Odds of winning the jackpot in the Dream Number draw
This is calculated in a slightly different way because you have to get your numbers in the exact same order as they are picked by the lottery machine:
1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 = 10,000,000
A 1 in 10,000,000 chance of winning £500,000 in the Dream Number draw
New Euromillions Raffle
Starting from Friday 13 November 2009 each line of numbers for the Euromillions Draw will cost £2 instead of £1.50 but will also give you an entry into the new Euromillions Raffle. Every week one lucky UK player will win £1 million - guaranteed. EEK! and it's Friday 13th as well!
Which jackpot are you more likely to win
You can see from the above, that, statistically you have the most chance of winning the jackpot in the Daily Play draw. Of course the Daily Play jackpot is much smaller at £30,000... but that would change most people's life?
For your £1 - which lottery draw gives you the best chance of winning something... anything?
Lotto Draw
Smallest prize is £10 and you have to get 3 numbers:
6/49 x 5/48 x 3/47 = a 1 in 921 chance of winning £10
Thunderball Draw
Smallest prize is £5 and you have to get 1 number plus the Thunderball:
5/34 x 1/14 = a 1 in 95 chance of winning £5
Daily Play Draw
Smallest prize is £5 for 4 correct numbers:
7/27 x 6/26 x 5/25 x 4/24 = a 1 in 501 chance of winning £5
Euromillions Draw
Smallest prizes are less than 10 and you have to get either 2 numbers plus 1 star number or 1 number plus 2 star numbers:
5/50 x 4/49 x 2/9 = a 1 in 551 chance of winning
less than £10
or
5/50 x 2/9 x 1/8 = a 1 in 360 chance of winning
less than £10
Dream Number Draw
Smallest prize is £2 for getting the first number correct:
1/10 = a 1 in 10 chance of winning £2
Summary of lottery odds
| Winning the Jackpot | Winning Anything! | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Play | 1:900,000 | 1:500 |
| Thunderball | 1:4,000,000 | 1:95 |
| Dream Number | 1:10,000,000 | 1:10 |
| Lotto | 1:14,000,000 | 1:900 |
| Euromillions | 1:76,000,000 | 1:360 |
So, the Daily Play draw gives you the best chance of winning the jackpot of £30,000 but the Dream Number draw gives you the best chance of winning anything at all, just £2
Is the Thunderball or Daily Play the best all round bet?
The Thunderball draw gives you the second best chance of winning the jackpot of £250,000 and also the second best chance of winning anything at all... £5
Play Thunderball on the National Lottery websiteHowever, the Daily Play gives you the best chances of winning a jackpot - you have the chance of winning £30,000 every day.
How to pick Lottery numbers
As we have said the outcome of any lottery draw is purely down to randon chance, so, there is little chance of being able to predict the correct numbers.
However, BECAUSE it's random chance, over a long enough period of time each ball SHOULD be drawn the same number of times.
If you tossed a coin - you would either get heads or tails. Heads and tails both have the same chance of coming up (50%). If you tossed the coin enough times, heads would come up the same number of times as tails.
The same logic can be applied to a lottery draw. Each ball has an equal chance of being drawn so each ball will end up being drawn the same number of times.
On the official UK National Lottery website there is a page which shows you, for all draws, how often each ball has been drawn. It shows you the balls which have been drawn the most often and the balls which have been drawn the least often.
You could use this "frequency checker" as they call it, to help you in choosing your lottery numbers. In theory, the balls which have been drawn the least number of times have, on average, more chance of being drawn next...?
Winning the lottery - is it fate?
Most people dream about winning the lottery and, we are sure, most people think about all the good they could do... realising goals, helping family, helping friends, helping worthy causes. If you won a HUGE amount of money - think of all the good you can do!
However, anyone who reads the news will know that they are some "un-deserving" people who win the Lottery. People who "shouldn't" win. People who "waste" the money.
Why do these people win... I/we/you could do so much better! Is this "fate"? Destiny?
Numerology and Winning the Lottery
If you believe that it is "fate" leads to each Lottery win then there can be no better way of choosing your numbers than to follow the numerology system.
Using your date of birth, and that of your partners', you can generate 6 numbers which may win the lottery for you:
- the day of the month you were born (1-31)
- the month of your birth (1-12)
- the year of your birth
For the year, you need to add all the digits together, so if you were born in 1962 the number you need is 1+9+6+2= 18.
Some numerologists say that the whole of your date of birth should be added together - so, for example, if you were born on 15/08/1965 a special number for you is 1+5+8+1+9+6+5=35.
If you use this numerology system take your date of birth, take your partner's date of birth, do the calculations, and you should have your 6 numbers. If it is your destiny/fate to win the lottery these numbers should come up... keep playing them.
How to win a BIG Jackpot
As explained above, one of the most common ways of picking numbers for the lottery is by using birthdays of family members - even for those people who don't understand/follow numerology. As a result, most lottery entries contain a lot of numbers from 1 to 31 (days of the month) and 1 to 12 (months of the year).
When any lottery machine picks lots of numbers in these low ranges there tends to be more winners, so the jackpots are shared amongst more winners - the jackpot is therefore lower.
If you want to win a BIG jackpot, make sure that you have picked some numbers beyond the range 1 to 31 - and especially beyond the range 1 to 12 - there will be less people doing so - the jackpot (if you are lucky enough to win it!) will be BIGGER!
How to win the lottery