The National Lottery - Informations, Lotto Numbers and Jackpots

The National Lottery is a lottery system operated by the private, state-franchised company Camelot, seated in the United Kingdom. It is also the national lottery of the State of Isle of Man, which is politically associated to the United Kingdom. The first lotto numbers (uk) were drawn on 19 November 1994, after, on 25 May 1994, Camelot had been conferred the government franchise upon.

Not only does the website of the national lottery offer lottery games to play, but lots of other online games are available, among which are Bingo, Scrabble and Monopoly. Besides, there are alternative classic lottery draw games to choose from such as EuroMillions, Lotto HotPicks and Thunderball.

The money earned by the sale of lottery tickets is destined for good causes such as nature conservation measures or goes to healthcare institutions or charity organizations. A total of 28 % of the revenues is spent on projects deemed beneficial to society, 12% of the sales is to be paid to the government as lottery tax. Thus, by participating in the national lottery and other games offered by Camelot, players contribute actively to the public good.

The national lottery has recently undergone some significant changes, as far as price money and jackpots are concerned. New regulations have been valid since 5 October 2013, which is when the first “new lotto” draw took place. Accordingly, jackpots can reach up until £5m on the average (compared to £3.9m before). The lucky owner of a ticket with 5 matches as well as the correct bonus number will be paid out £50,000 on the average. Tickets matching 3, 4 and 5 numbers are worth £25, £100 and £1,000, respectively.

Play Lotto Online - How does it work?

It does not take much effort to become a millionaire by playing lotto; playing via internet, sitting in front of your computer, makes it all the easier for you to try your luck as you are not even compelled to leave the house. You only need to select 6 numbers out of 49 by clicking the mouse. In order to play online, there is nothing more to do than to open an account. On the play slip you must indicate which draw you want to play (Wednesday, Saturday or both) and for how many weeks you want to play. The numbers you choose must be tabbed in the boxes on your online play slip. If you choose the option “Lucky Dip”, the numbers will be generated automatically. You can buy at most 5 pay slips, each of which consists of 7 lines, that is to say you can fill in up to 35 lines of numbers. Each line costs £2, multiplied by the number of drawings.

Altogether, there are 6 prize categories: 6 matches, 5 matches plus Bonus Ball, 5 matches without Bonus Ball, 4 matches, 3 matches and raffle. The lotto raffle, which has only recently been introduced, provides with every lotto ticket purchased, an additional raffle lotto number that will be automatically generated. These raffle numbers consist of 8 numbers and a specific colour. So its possible to get many raffle numbers, in case you buy a new lotto ticket. At a normal draw, 50 raffle numbers are selected by an automatic drawing machine. In case of a rollover, i.e. if the previous jackpot has remained untouched, this sum will be added to a further 50 numbers in the next draw. As a quadruple rollover is the maximum possible, there is a maximum of 250 winning raffle numbers. Each raffle number drawn goes with a prize money of £20,000.

How to crack the Jackpot

The players whose lines match all 6 uk lotto numbers drawn are entitled for the jackpot; should there be more than 1 player with 6 matches, the jackpot is equally divided between all of them. If no one wins the jackpot, there will be an accumulated jackpot in the next draw, a so called rollover. The rules allow for this to happen only 4 times consecutively. This means that if the jackpot is not won in a quadruple rollover, the sum is divided between the players of the immediately inferior prize category, i.e. the players whose tickets match 5 numbers plus the Bonus Ball. The average jackpot prizes are at approximately £5m and £2.5m on Saturday and Wednesday, respectively.

How the Lotto Numbers are drawn

There are 2 draws a week, on Wednesday and on Saturday. In the lotto draw, 6 numbers are drawn, including one bonus number, which is only relevant to players with exactly 5 matches. You are eligible for prize money with at least 3 matching numbers. For reasons of randomization, the draws are carried out, using a number of special draw machines and different ball sets. In the draw, six balls are selected randomly out of 49 uniquely numbered balls. The balls are drawn one after the other, with the balls, once selected, not being returned to the pot. Subsequently, the bonus number is drawn. The raffle numbers are selected separately by means of an automatic draw machine, selecting 50 valid numbers during a normal draw. The prize money is guaranteed, inasmuch as all valid game entries are allocated in the system. The results of the draw are available to be checked on teletext, on the internet or via the national lottery smartphone app.

Rules and Conditions of Lotto UK

Money prizes have to be claimed within a deadline of 180 days, after which the money goes to a national fund, administered by the government, in order to raise money for good causes. In addition the players are required to be 16 years or older. The money won in the national lottery does not to have be declared for the purposes of UK Capital Gains Tax nor UK Income Tax. However, it must be noted that tax laws are subject to change; therefore it is incumbent upon the players to keep themselves informed about the current law.