The National Lottery is expecting a rush for tickets this week as a must-win £25 million (US$32.5 million) jackpot means the odds of winning the top prize are six times better than usual.
After ten consecutive draws without a jackpot winner, the total prize fund must be won this Wednesday so if nobody correctly predicts all six numbers the £24.7 million jackpot will be won — or shared — by anyone who matches five numbers plus the bonus ball.
The "must win" rule is triggered when the prize fund reaches £22 million (US$28.6 million), and slashes the odds of taking home a life-changing prize from one in 45 million to one in 7.5 million.
On Saturday one player matched five numbers and the bonus, winning just £89,000 (US$116,000). The same result on Wednesday could mean winning the entire jackpot.
It comes as lottery franchise holders Camelot face criticism that the additional of ten extra balls into the draw eighteen months ago have made the game "boring" because the vanishingly small odds of winning lead to more frequent rollovers.
Statistician Rob Mastrodomenico, 36, founder of consultancy Global Sports Statistics, said, "They've made it extremely difficult to win. When you look at the things you would compare it to, like being struck by lightning, you see how difficult it is."
At nine million to one, it is five times more likely to be struck by lightning twice in your lifetime, than to win the national lottery in a standard week.
Mastrodomenico added, "It would need nearly every person in the UK to buy a ticket, and to have a unique combination, to guarantee that someone would win each week.
"That's why there's so many more rollovers now."
He said players have as good a chance of winning this week as they have ever had under the new rules.
In October 2015, Camelot started using 59 balls instead of the previous 49, lengthening the odds threefold from one in 14 million to one in 45 million. That increased the frequency of rollovers so a cap of £50 million was introduced, then reduced last August to £22 million, to prevent the prize from rolling over indefinitely.
Camelot does not publish ticket sales on a week-by-week basis but a spokesman confirmed they expected high demand over the coming days.
"When the jackpot gets bigger, that drives sales. More and more people either buy extra lines, or occasional players might buy a ticket," Mastrodomenico said. "And when it's a must-be-won jackpot, we see sales increase. More and more people get excited."
On Twitter, fans have vented their frustration at the rarity of jackpots wins. Only eleven times this year has a player matched all six numbers to take the jackpot, at a rate of one every four draws.
The last time anyone successfully matched all six numbers to win the top jackpot was Saturday April 15.
The Camelot spokesman stressed the new system also includes the "Lotto Millionaire Raffle" which awards one £1m prize with every draw. He added, "At the end of the day, it is a lottery."
One Twitter user replied to a Lotto advertisement for the Millionaire Raffle by saying, "No one is interested in your boring raffle! It's the National LOTTERY. How many Match 6 winners in the last year? Bring back 49 numbers!"
Another added, "Name should be changed to either 'The rollover lottery' or 'The raffle lottery'".
The twice-weekly Lotto draws are no longer aired live on the BBC. Wednesday's draw will be streamed live on YouTube and Facebook Live at 8:30pm local time, and the results will be published on Lottery Post's UK National Lottery Results page soon after the draw.
Worse odds and rollover cap, if I played UK Lotto I'd abandon ship and play Euromillions and Oz Lotto.
I hope this helps.
Here in the States we are looking at a PB jackpot of $250,000,000.00 with odds of 292,200,000: 1
The complaints I notice are players who stop playing PB until larger jackpots are reached.
Good Luck to Camelot.
l took a gander at the 2nd prize payout for PB this past weekend expecting a million plus for the CA winner, but it seems players out here are more inclined to go for MM at the present time, given the 2nd prize payout as of late between the two. Who knows how CA is going to react once MM goes to $2 a ticket ...oh well.
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To the Winner in England:
You need to do the right thing with your newly won money,
and move to California, USA. You'll not find better weather in the USA,
or in most places, on the globe. Certainly not in England, where it rains
excessively.
I'd be disappointed to learn you did otherwise.
Anyway, it's what I'd do, as I can't imagine going anywhere else in this doggone
country, after such a 'modest' win. Here, on the East Coast, it's also rained a lot,
with the ugly gray skies, which is mainly why I'd move.
But, in "Californy", you'd also find lots to do, and opportunities on which to spend
your new money.
Mr. Groppo
What if nobody hits a 5 of 6 plus the bonus ball, then what?
Then it continues to roll down...
The 1st division prize is added to the pool distributed to people who match 5 numbers (88 did that last draw .. it would have added ~GBP 260,227 to the usual GBP 1,071 last draw).
And if there are no division 3 winners.. it rolls down to 4th division (match 4 numbers... 6391 people won GBO 95 last week...)..
And if no on be picks 4 numbers.. it continues to roll down.
Probably makes more sense to wait until they announce the "must win" drawing and play.
Must-win draws with better roll down odds only happen sporadically, so as far as im concerned the others are a better play.
Why do you need to take a cheap shot at England??
Do you think the USA is such fantastic place to live.
I'll choose rain everyday of the week.
Have more respect, especially after yesterdays bombing.
Your faux outrage is noted.