UK Lottery Statistics and Odds at Winning
The National Lottery is equipped with several games which you can try your hand at. Each of them has its particular jackpot and is played at different odds. As you can imagine, winning the lottery is no simple thing, and your chances of scoring the winning combination are small. But how small exactly are they? There are four major lottery games that you can enjoy, available at the top UK lotto sites and at retail locations, namely:
- Lotto
- EuroMillions
- Set for Life
- Thunderball
Of these four, the Thunderball offers you the best odds at winning the jackpot, specifically 8,060,597 to 1. It costs $1.00 per ticket with prizes up to £500,000. You can also win anywhere between £3 and £5000, depending on how many numbers you predict.
The Set for Life game comes in second in terms of odds, where your chances are 15,339,390 to 1 if you’re aiming at the highest jackpot. Set for Life is named for its prize structure. Rather than a massive one-time payout, players get to claim £10,000 monthly for the next 30 years. You also stand to win anywhere between £5 and £250, depending on your luck. Also, £120,000 can be paid out monthly over a year if you fall short of the major prize.
EuroMillions is an international game, available to players from France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzer, and the United Kingdom, among others. As far as your odds at winning are concerned, this game is the least likely to pay out at 139,838,160 to 1 for the highest jackpot. However, the massive odds are justified given that EuroMillions rewards the winner with £14 million. Smaller prizes range between £2.50 and £130,500 and occasionally change in value.
The Lotto is the primary British lottery game, once known as The National Lottery. It has undergone changes in recent years and now stands as one of the most profitable games of its kind. Currently, UK players have the opportunity to try their luck at £9.2 million every week at odds of 45,057,474 to 1. If you fall short of the required six main numbers, you can also win between £30 and £1,000,000.
National Lottery Statistics: Winning Numbers
The National Lottery records the history of winning numbers over the years and makes it available for the public. Using this information, you can get some insight on which balls come up more frequently than others. The so-called “hot numbers” are as follows:
| 🎱 Ball Number | 🧮 Times Drawn |
|---|---|
| 52 | 78 |
| 8 | 76 |
| 58 | 71 |
| 54 | 71 |
| 36 | 70 |
| 55 | 68 |
Of course, there are numbers that rarely factor into the winning draw. Some players like to keep track of these “cold numbers” and put them down on their tickets. According to lottery statistics and analytics, here are the least drawn numbers in the Lotto:
| 🎱 Ball Number | 🧮 Times Drawn |
|---|---|
| 24 | 47 |
| 48 | 47 |
| 15 | 49 |
| 21 | 50 |
| 33 | 51 |
| 13 | 52 |
We think this is a good time to remind you of the gambler’s fallacy. Much like all gambling games, lotto is ultimately random at its core. As such, there is no rhyme or reason to how it functions. Every draw is the result of chance, and there is no guarantee that any particular outcome is more likely than another. Therefore, we recommend that you take lottery statistics with a grain of salt and remember that lotto is meant to be only for entertainment.
Lottery Statistics UK – Winners and Largest Jackpots
We might all play the lottery, but few of us ever see anything from it. Still, there is a number of lucky individuals out there who have not only beaten the odds but received a significant payout for their good fortune. While UK jackpots rarely rank among the biggest lotto wins ever, they still offer considerable sums of money. As you can imagine becoming a multi-millionaire overnight is no small event for anyone. Here are the largest jackpots ever won in the UK:
| Jackpot Size | Date | Winning Combination | Numbers of Winners |
|---|---|---|---|
| £66,070,646 | 9th January 2016 | 26-27-46-47-52-58 (48) | 2 |
| £42,008,610 | 6th January 1996 | 2-3-4-13-42-44 (24) | 3 |
| £40,223,600 | 27th January 1996 | 16-17-38-41-42-43 (28) | 4 |
| £35,133,888 | 6th April 2016 | 15-17-31-41-50-57 (5) | 1 |
| £32,534,188 | 13th February 2016 | 15-16-23-39-48-59 (36) | 1 |
As you can see, the UK lottery statistics reveal that there can be more than a single winner at a time. In such cases, the jackpot is split evenly between all winning players. There are also situations with more than twenty winners from a single draw. While rare, these happen occasionally, and we have taken notice. Here are the instances with most winners from a single draw from the UK Lotto:
| Jackpot Size | Date | Winning Combination | Numbers of Winners | Prize per Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £16,293,830 | 14th January 1995 | 7-17-23-32-38-42 (48) | 133 | £122,510 |
| £8,313,963 | 16th March 1996 | 2-12-19-28-38-48 (45) | 57 | £145,859 |
| £7,011,826 | 26th June 1999 | 2-17-18-23-30-40 (43) | 46 | £152,431 |
| £20,000,000 | 4th November 2000 | 2-8-17-29-33-44 (11) | 32 | £625,000 |
| £8,510,060 | 18th November 1995 | 4-7-18-33-45-48 (1) | 20 | £425,503 |
Draws like these are always fun to observe since we usually think that only a single lucky person wins the big prize. Yet, as you can see above, sometimes you have to share the spoils.
Lottery Revenue and Taxes
Playing the lottery is fun for you as a player, but there are many behind-the-scenes factors that you may not have heard of. The lotto is set up in such a way to benefit the government, the retailers, and the public in general. As you can imagine, lotto generates quite a lot in revenue, but only 55% of that is set aside from prizes. About a quarter of the money goes towards so-called “good causes” as dictated by Parliament. This initiative includes investments in community services, the arts, sport, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
That makes up for 78% of lottery revenue, but what about the rest? Of the remaining 22%, the UK government receives 12% as a direct tax. Additionally, retailers get 4% of the revenue for their services. The final portion of the money is given to Camelot, the company which operates the whole venture. Of that, 1% is kept as profit, while the remainder is spent on operating costs.
This is a rough overview of how the revenue generated from the National Lottery is spent. But how much money does the lotto bring in? We can look at the National Lottery statistics concerning the annual sales to answer that. Over the past ten years, the lotto has shown consistent growth. Here are the revenues generated for the period of 2008 to 2020:
| 📅 Period | 💷 Sales |
|---|---|
| April 2010 – March 2011 | £5,824,700,000 |
| April 2011 – March 2012 | £6,503,300,000 |
| April 2012 – March 2013 | £6,977,100,000 |
| April 2013 – March 2014 | £6,736,300,000 |
| April 2014 – March 2015 | £7,275,200,000 |
| April 2015 – March 2016 | £7,615,700,000 |
| April 2016 – March 2017 | £6,921,800,000 |
| April 2017 – March 2018 | £6,936,200,000 |
| April 2018 – March 2019 | £7,207,800,000 |
| April 2019 – March 2020 | £7,904,230,000 |
The National Lottery is an immense venture and serves as a significant source of revenue for the government. There are many retail locations where you can purchase a lottery ticket and an online platform. It is clear that the lottery is quite popular among the UK public, reflecting in the lottery statistics and analytics.
Demographics of Lottery Participants in the UK
Clearly, the lottery is viral in the United Kingdom. But who are the people who purchase lottery tickets? The UKGC has data on the demographics that take part in this kind of games. Briefly put, most of the 54% of players are in the 45 to 64 years old group, while 47% represent the 25 to 44 years olds demographic. It is estimated that about 70% of eligible players buy lottery tickets. More than 50% of the UK public plays on a weekly basis, with the average person buying three tickets each time.
Popular Questions
If you have more questions about lottery statistics and analytics, please have a look at the FAQ section below. We cover critical pieces of information on the subject and provide quick and easy answers.