The UK Lotto serves as the biggest regular drawing in the UK and Isle of Man with guaranteed minimum jackpots and a history of providing payouts as high as £42 million. Now that you can buy UK Lotto tickets online, the potential for a life-changing amount of money is just a few clicks away.

Best UK National Lottery Sites

The UK national lottery was established in 1993 and is now operated by a private company named “the Camelot Group.” At first, the national lottery was highly successful and generated impressive ticket sales numbers. Interest in the lottery leveled off after a while and started falling backward until being revamped in 2002. Today’s UK National Lottery is bigger, more varied, and produces more millionaires than ever before.

Players can watch the majority of drawings for the National Lottery on television. In fact, the UK has its own syndicated lottery show that airs every week. Proceeds from ticket sales are used to fund charitable causes throughout the UK. To date, the lottery has raised more than £34 billion for a variety of charities.

How to Buy UK National Lottery Tickets Online

There are numerous ways to buy tickets for the UK Lotto. First, anyone living in the UK can visit the official website to sign up for an online account and purchase entries online through direct debit. This is the best way to participate if you live in-country as it is fast, convenient and the system automatically checks all tickets for winners.

Your best bet is to buy UK Lotto tickets through a third-party reseller such as those you see listed above if you live elsewhere. When you buy your tickets through a reseller (a.k.a. “lotto concierge”), they actually send a real person out to buy tickets in person. Legitimate lottery sites also make sure to scan and upload a copy of every ticket so you can check for yourself that agent actually purchased the ticket and whether or not you won.

Your job when you buy tickets is to pick six numbers from a pool of 1-59. You win the top payout if you match all six numbers. Additionally, one more bonus ball is drawn every week. The only role this bonus ball plays is to award secondary payouts to those who match five numbers plus the bonus ball. Lottery drawings are held every Wednesday (£2.5 million guaranteed) and Saturday (£5 million guaranteed).

Oftentimes, a drawing is held that results in nobody matching all six numbers. When that happens, the current jackpot rolls over to the next drawing, which results in an even bigger jackpot the next time around. If the jackpot reaches £50 million without a winner, that jackpot is capped at £50 million, and all further rollovers are added to the second tier payout for those who match five numbers plus the bonus ball.

Lotto Millionaire Raffle

One of the big selling points of the UK Lotto is the add-on Millionaire Raffle feature. Every ticket you buy automatically includes an entry to the Million Raffle, which awards an additional £1 million prize and twenty additional £20,000 prizes. These prizes are guaranteed for every drawing such that a new millionaire is created twice a week through the raffle alone.

It is impossible to calculate the odds of the raffle ahead of time because they depend entirely on how many people purchase tickets. No matter how many (or how few) people buy tickets, these prizes are awarded every single week. In any case, it doesn’t much matter because the Millionaire Raffle is included with every ticket by default for no additional charge.

Free Lucky Dip

Lottery organizers recently introduced the “Lucky Dip” feature for anyone who matches exactly two numbers in any drawing. Doing so allows you to enter your ticket into the next drawing for a free shot at winning again.

Now, let’s take a look at the prizes and odds of winning.

UK Lotto Payouts and Prizes

The following chart shows every prize level plus the odds of making that number of matches and winning that payout. I have also included a sample of payouts from a recent drawing to give you a rough idea of how much each prize level is worth in real terms.

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