Winning the lottery is the ultimate dream come true – and it became a reality for one lucky Brit who won £122 million over the Easter weekend.
It is the second UK EuroMillions jackpot winner this year after another lucky ticket-holder won the £39 million jackpot in the draw on New Year’s Day.
Since The National Lottery first launched in 1994, it’s created more than 5,900 millionaires – but what are the odds that you’ll win big, too?
Here is the likelihood that you’ll become filthy rich.
What are your chances of winning the lottery?
According to the National Lottery website, the odds of winning the jackpots are:
- Lotto jackpot: 1 in 45,057,474
- EuroMillions jackpot: 1 in 139,838,160
- Set For Life top prize: 1 in 15,339,390
- Thunderball top prize: 1 in 8,060,598
So, the game with the best odds, in terms of winning the top prize, is the Thunderball.
However, before you go rushing out to buy a Thunderball ticket or two (or three), here, it’s important to put the odds into perspective.
There are many things more likely to happen than winning the lottery.
According to Save The Student, you are almost five times more likely to be struck by lightning, 64 times more likely to be crushed by a meteorite, and 4,000 times more likely to win an Oscar.
So, next time there’s a rollover and you think about splurging on some tickets, you may want to spend that money on acting classes instead.
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How to increase your chances of winning the lottery
Don’t let those odds put you off entering the lottery – someone has to win and it may very well be you.
Although the lottery result is random, there are things you can do to help the odds work in your favour.
One tip is obviously entering lotteries which have better odds, such as the Thunderball.
Another simple hack is to buy lots of tickets and play frequently – you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Lottoland suggest joining a syndicate, as they report that 20% (1 in 5) of all lottery jackpots are won by syndicates.
The final tip is to pick numbers at random. You won’t increase your chances of winning, but you will make a big difference to how much you win.
In the UK, 10,000 people pick the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 each week, according to Lottoland. If that sequence ended up being the winning one, all those people would take home just £1000 from a £10 million prize pool.
What is the biggest lottery jackpot ever won in the UK?
Britain’s richest ever lottery winner, who has chosen to stay anonymous, secured a mouth-watering jackpot of £170 million in October 2019.
The second highest prize – a whopping £161 million – went to Colin and Chris Weir, from North Ayrshire, Scotland, in 2011.
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