All you need to know about the Irish Lotto
The Irish Lotto began in 1988 and today is still extremely popular, not just in Ireland but with lotto fans around the globe. With a guaranteed €2 million jackpot for every draw and rollovers if there’s no jackpot winner, the Irish Lotto offers the chance of a huge win for a small stake, and throughout the years, it’s seen some massive payouts.
The biggest winner in Irish Lotto history was in 2008 when a syndicate from County Carlow won €18.9 million and, more recently, a family from County Mayo landed an amazing €13.7 million jackpot in 2016.
With such massive jackpots on offer, here at Jackpot.com we’ve decided to take a closer look at why the Irish Lotto is so popular, how it works, and of course how to play it - read on for all to be revealed!
About the Irish Lotto
The Irish Lotto is drawn twice a week - on a Wednesday evening and a Saturday evening - and the jackpot prize for every draw is a guaranteed €2 million. For the main draw, six numbers from 1 to 47 are randomly drawn and if you’re lucky enough to match all six, then the Irish Lotto jackpot is yours. There is also a bonus ball drawn to offer more winning selections - the more numbers you correctly match, the more you can win. You can check out the full Irish Lotto prize breakdown below or on our Irish Lotto Help Guide.
| Match | Odds of Winning | Prize* |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1:10,737,573 | Jackpot (min. €2 million) |
| 5 + Bonus | 1:1,789,596 | €100,000** |
| 5 | 1:44,740 | €1,500** |
| 4 + Bonus | 1:17,896 | €150** |
| 4 | 1:918 | €50** |
| 3 + Bonus | 1:688 | €25** |
| 3 | 1:54 | €9** |
| 2 + Bonus | 1:72 | €3 |
* The amounts shown above have been taken from the official Irish Lotto prize breakdown. Jackpot.com prize amounts are calculated in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.
** Prize value may vary significantly depending on the number of winners and the amount accumulated in the prize pool for any given draw.
Why play the Irish Lotto
Of course, most people playing a lottery are hoping to win the big jackpot. The Irish Lotto is such a popular game to play because of your odds of landing the jackpot, as you can see from the table above.
While a 1 in 10.7 million chance of winning the jackpot might sound small - your chance of winning the EuroMillions lottery jackpot is 1 in 139 million and the US Powerball jackpot is 1 in 292 million.
What’s more, your odds of winning one of the smaller prizes on the Irish Lotto is as low as 1 in 54!
How to play the Irish Lotto
If you’re looking to join in the Irish Lotto action then here at Jackpot.com we’ve got you covered. The good news is, even though it’s the Irish lottery, you don’t have to be in Ireland to join the fun. Simply log into your Jackpot.com account or create a new account for free and head to our dedicated Irish Lotto page to get started.
From here, you can select your Irish Lotto numbers and be in with a chance of landing that big jackpot. Choose six numbers or use our Quick Pick function to have numbers randomly selected for you.
Fun fact: The numbers picked least often by Irish Lotto players are 26 and 36.
Then select which days you want to be entered in and for how many weeks, and then add your entries to the cart. You can then checkout and pay using a variety of options including Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal - simple!
As well as being able to select multiple draws when you pick your tickets, we also offer a subscription service. This is a convenient way to make sure you (and your lucky numbers!) never miss an Irish Lotto draw. Plus, you can get a discount of up to 20% off the standard ticket price, depending on the subscription option you choose – you can find the full details here.
How to check the Irish Lotto results
This is the most important part of playing - checking the Irish Lotto winning numbers to see if you’ve been lucky.
The Irish Lotto is drawn at 19:55 GMT (20:55 CET) every Wednesday and Saturday evening and you can check out the winning numbers on our Irish Lotto Results page immediately after the draw has been made.
And remember, even if you match just two numbers and the bonus ball you’re a winner!
Even if you forget to check those important Irish Lotto results though, don’t worry - we’ll send you an email to tell you if you’ve been lucky and landed a winner!
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