Plus you will be notified if you win, so you don’t even need to check the results. If you'd like to play online, visit the EuroMillions Online page to get started. Another advantage of entering online is that National Lottery players can enter their lines on a continuous basis to ensure they never miss a draw. How to Play UK National Lottery. It costs €2.00 to play the UK National Lottery, and players are tasked with choosing 6 numbers from between 1 and 59. There is a bonus ball drawn, and this impacts on the prize structure, but it is not chosen as a separate number by the player.
Find out how to play Lotto to put yourself in with a chance of winning a prize. From choosing your numbers to paying for your tickets, the Lotto players guide below will steer you through what to do, starting with the numbers you pick.
Pick six numbers from 1-59
Select six numbers from 1 to 59. You can pick your own numbers or play a Lucky Dip if you would prefer to be given a random set of numbers – the chances of winning are the same whichever option you choose.
A Bonus Ball is also drawn in Lotto but you do not select a Bonus Ball when you play, as the aim is to match it with one of the six numbers you do pick.
Select your draw day
There are two Lotto draws a week - one on Saturday at 7.45pm and one on Wednesday at 8.00pm. Choose whether to enter just one draw or both by marking your preferred option on the playslip or telling the retailer.
If you are playing online, you just need to select the relevant day. If you take out a subscription you’ll play the draws you specified every week until your subscription ends.
Choose how many weeks
You need to specify how many weeks in advance you want to play, up to a maximum of four. It is therefore possible to enter up to eight consecutive draws if you play on both Wednesday and Saturday.
When playing online, you can also set up a Direct Debit to play on a continual basis. You can change your numbers and draw days at any time while the Direct Debit is active.
Purchase your tickets
The final step is to pay for your tickets, and it costs £2 per entry to play Lotto. If you play in a store, you will be given a paper ticket that you will need to keep safe, as it is your only proof of entry.
Your numbers are saved in your account when you play online so you don’t need to worry about keeping your ticket safe. You can view your numbers by logging in to your account.
How to Win Lotto
To win Lotto prizes, the numbers on your ticket must match those drawn in the winning line. Match two of the main numbers to win a free Lucky Dip; the prizes increase in value as you match more numbers. Head over to the Prizes and Odds page to find out about all the payouts on offer.
How Free Lucky Dips Work
If you match two numbers, it is easy to claim your free Lucky Dip. If you have bought your ticket from a store, simply take your entry to any National Lottery retailer within 180 days of the winning draw. You will then be given the choice over whether to receive your Lucky Dip for the next Wednesday or Saturday draw.
When you win a Lucky Dip online, you will be notified by email and the Lucky Dip will be automatically entered into the next Lotto draw. You will then be given the chance to decide whether you would like any future Lucky Dips to be entered into the next draw, the next Wednesday draw or the next Saturday draw. Go to the Lucky Dips page for more information, and check out the How to Claim section to learn more about claiming prizes.
A Lucky Dip is an entry into a National Lottery draw that consists of randomly selected numbers, rather than numbers that you pick manually. All National Lottery games give you the option to play a Lucky Dip instead of your own numbers.
If you match two numbers in Lotto you win a free Lucky Dip for the next draw. How you get hold of your free ticket differs depending on whether you bought your winning entry in-store or online. The Lotto Results pages show how many Lucky Dip winners there were in each draw.
Claiming free Lucky Dips online
If you play Lotto online and match two numbers, you will receive an email notifying you that you have won a prize. The free Lucky Dip will then be applied to your account on the day of the next draw. For any future Lucky Dips you win you will be able to choose whether to enter them into the next Wednesday draw or the next Saturday draw.
The free Lucky Dip will be visible in your account on the day of the draw but not before. Take the following steps to view your free Lucky Dip numbers online:
- Sign in to your account on the National Lottery website or app
- Go to your account by selecting the box that shows your balance and then selecting ‘My account’, or by tapping the profile icon at the top of the app
- Select ‘My games’
- Select a ticket number to view the details of that ticket
If you follow these steps after the draw you will see a message next to the ticket informing you whether you have won. Alternatively, you can enter your numbers into the Lotto Ticket Checker to see whether you have won a prize.
Claiming free Lucky Dips at a retailer
If you play Lotto in-store, you can claim your free Lucky Dip from any National Lottery retailer. Just hand your winning ticket to the cashier and they will give you the choice of entering either the next Wednesday or the next Saturday Lotto draw.
You will then be given a new Lucky Dip ticket for the chosen draw. The winning ticket you used to claim the free Lucky Dip will not be returned to you, even if it’s a multi-draw ticket with draws left to play. You can find an explanation of what happens when you claim your free Lucky Dip with a multi-draw ticket below.
Claiming your free Lucky Dip with a multi-draw ticket
When you win a free Lucky Dip on a multi-draw ticket you can claim it at any time, even if you win in the first draw on the ticket.
Just take your ticket to any lottery retailer to claim, as you would if you had a ticket just for that draw. After the cashier validates your winning ticket they will give you the free Lucky Dip for the next Lotto draw but they will not return your original multi-draw ticket to you.
If there were draws still left to play on your multi-draw ticket the cashier will give you an Exchange Ticket, which acts as your new proof of entry for any future draws that were on the original multi-draw ticket. If you win further prizes in any of the draw dates on the Exchange Ticket, it is that which you must use to claim.
If you claim a prize using a multi-draw ticket – whether it’s a free Lucky Dip or any other prize – make sure you hold on to the Exchange Ticket you receive, as you will not be able to claim prizes without it. It’s also worth checking the Exchange Ticket carefully to make sure the details are correct and it includes all the remaining draws.
How to Play Using a Lucky Dip
If you play in-store you can get a Lucky Dip by asking the cashier. Just let them know the game, draw days, and the number of weeks you want to play and they will do the rest. Alternatively, you can fill out a playslip online or in-store:
- Mark one Lucky Dip box for every line of numbers you want to play
- Select which draw days you want your numbers to be entered on
- Mark the number of weeks you want to play for (if more than one week)
- Pay for your ticket
You will only get to see your Lucky Dip numbers after the ticket has been generated.
When you play using a Lucky Dip, you cannot change your numbers once they have been generated; the numbers you’re given are the ones you have to play with. If you don’t like the inflexibility of that, use National-Lottery.com’s Lotto Number Generator to create your own randomly generated line. Unlike a Lucky Dip, you can use the generator as many times as you want, so you’re not stuck with the first set of numbers you’re given.
Is it possible to get the same Lucky Dip numbers more than once?
Lucky Dips are generated entirely at random so there is a chance that some of your numbers are repeated across multiple lines.
However, the chances of purchasing two Lotto Lucky Dips with exactly the same six numbers are the same as winning the jackpot, so while there is a small possibility that the system has generated two identical lines entirely at random, it is more likely that an error has occurred.
For that reason, if you receive multiple Lucky Dips with exactly the same numbers, you should contact the National Lottery Customer Care Team within two hours of buying the ticket or before the close of sales for that draw, whichever is sooner. They will investigate and may offer you a refund.
Is a Lucky Dip better than picking your own numbers?
National Lottery Uk Lotto
The odds of winning the lottery are exactly the same whether you pick your own numbers or opt for a Lucky Dip, so in that respect it makes no difference at all to how much or how often you win. Roughly half of all jackpot winners have used Lucky Dips.
Lucky Dips, however, can help to ensure that when you do win you don’t have to share the prize money with other players.
That’s because the numbers in a Lucky Dip are picked completely randomly; the chances that someone else has picked the exact same numbers are slim. When you pick your own numbers, however, there’s a chance that you pick them according to a pattern, whether you mean to or not. If you’ve used a certain pattern, it’s possible that other players have done so too.
Nat Lottery Uk
For example, the winning numbers in the Lotto draw on 23rd March 2016 were 7, 14, 21, 35, 41, and 42, five of which are multiples of seven. This proved to be a popular pattern with Lotto players and resulted in more than 4,000 players matching five numbers. Some of the winners were understandably displeased to learn that they had only won £15, which was less than the £25 that Match 3 winners received.
England Lottery
Picking a Lucky Dip will help to avoid any potential pitfalls like this and will reduce the likelihood that you’ll suffer a similar surprise when you do win.
How Do You Play National Lottery Online Uk
If you’ve played other online lotteries you might have been given the option to play a ‘Quick Pick.’ A Lucky Dip is the National Lottery’s version of a Quick Pick - both give you random combinations of numbers to play in upcoming draws.