Understanding how the lottery works is crucial before playing. It’s advised that you familiarise yourself with the rules, terms & conditions, and the impact of certain actions.
One of the most important parts of the lottery is a lottery rollover. We’ll look at how a lottery rollover works in our Wizard Slots post below.
What Is A Rollover?
A lottery rollover is when no one wins the jackpot. Instead, the money that would be awarded is added to the next game’s jackpot. As a result, the total jackpot prize increases.
Some lotteries don’t have rollovers, so the rules are always worth noting before playing. However, the Lotto can roll over up to five times.
Why Does A Rollover Happen?
The Lotto usually offers different prizes, depending on how many ticket numbers successfully match with those drawn. The jackpot prize is won if someone holds a ticket with all numbers matching the drawn numbers. The concept sounds easy, but it’s often not.
Millions of people play the lottery, but we have had scenarios where all numbers drawn don’t match anyone else’s. So, the jackpot goes unclaimed, and a rollover follows.
What Is The Lottery Rollover Limit?
The rollover rules change depending on which lottery you play. We’ll focus on Lotto and Euromillions here.
Lotto
We’ve mentioned that the Lotto can roll over five times before being won. Let’s say it’s valued at £2 million on Wednesday and £4 million on Saturday. It rolls over if no one wins. However, the lowest amount it can reach is £13.6 million. Each draw’s jackpot can increase if enough tickets sell.
The longest Lotto rollover happened in November 2015. It featured 15 draws, where one player won £4.3 million. It continued rolling until January 2016, with the jackpot growing to £66 million. The value was split between two players.
Of course, the rollover rules have changed since 2018 to prevent it from rolling over that long.
Euromillions
Euromillions has a maximum jackpot rollover of £240 million. This limit could take a few draws or as many draws as it takes. For example, the lottery ran until 22 draws in 2019. It climbed until its cap at the time of £190 million. If it reaches its maximum value, 5 draws take place. An anonymous player won a £170 million prize in October of that year.
What Happens If Nobody Wins The Capped Rollover Jackpot?
If a jackpot rolls over its designated number of times, a must-be-won draw follows. In this type of draw, the entire jackpot has to be given away even if no full winning matches occur.
So, if no winner emerges, the jackpot money is split between others that have matched numbers.
How Many Rollovers Until Must Be Won?
Remember that not every lottery has a rollover. However, those that do have different terms and conditions. For example, the main lottery, i.e., the Lotto run by the National Lottery, can roll over only 5 times at most.
The starting jackpot rolls over, moves to a double rollover, a triple rollover, a quadruple rollover, and then on the fifth rollover, it’s finally classified as a must-be-won draw. If no one wins, a rolldown follows, and the jackpot gets shared among players with 2 or more matching numbers.
The Euromillions lottery works differently. The jackpot rolls over until it reaches the £240 million cap and remains so for 4 draws before a must-be-won draw.
How Does The Must Be Won Draw Work?
A must-be-won draw is just that; a situation where all the jackpot prize money must be won. Remember, a must-be-won draw follows after the designated series of lottery draws occur.
Instead of more rollovers, a roll down is initiated. This is where the jackpot money splits to the lower tiers in the Lotto and the next highest tiers in the Euromillions.
What Does Roll Down Mean In The Lottery?
A roll down follows the final rollover in the Lotto. It’s where the jackpot splits between players with 2 or more matching lottery numbers from the main draw.
This scenario can also occur in Euromillions. Here, the jackpot rolls over until it reaches its cap. It remains the same value for 4 draws before the must-be-won draw occurs.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this should clear up any confusion as to how a lottery rollover works. However, it might help to read through the specific rules of any lottery games you choose to play. You can find a lot of helpful information on the National Lottery website.
*All values (Bet Levels, Maximum Wins etc.) mentioned in relation to this game are subject to change at any time.