Euro Millions

General History

Euro Millions first began on 13 February 2004 and was originally presented by three major lottery organizers in the United Kingdom, France and Spain. Many other countries joined shortly thereafter however. The minimum cost of a ticket is €2, £2 or CHF3.20 depending on where you live. The objective is to select the five main and two lucky star numbers that are drawn from two ball machines.

Euro Millions is a once a week lottery that is drawn every Friday evening. Unlike national lotteries which are generally limited to the residents of a country, Euro Millions accepts stakes from all the participating European countries. As a result, the jackpot has the potential to become very large. When the prize is not won, it is rolled over to the next draw.

There are twelve prize categories in the Euro Millions lottery and the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24. The jackpot generally begins at about €10 million and can easily grow to more than €50 million. The odds of hitting the jackpot are 1 in 76,275,360.

Lottery Schedule

Drawings for this lotto are held on Friday

How to Play

Each Euro Millions play slip has five panels and you must play a minimum of one panel. Each panel costs €2, £2 or CHF3.20 depending upon where you live. Within each panel, choose five numbers from 1 through 50 and two lucky star numbers from 1 through 9 by marking them vertically with a black pen. You may also choose a Quick Pick panel where your numbers will be randomly generated by the Euro Millions computer.

Lottery age Limit

Canadians over age 18 are allowed to participate in the BC Lotto draws.

Participating Countries

The following countries participate in Euro Millions: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, UK

Prize Structure

EuroMillions is one of the world's largest tax free lotteries.

There are 12 prize categories in Euro Millions and each category is pari mutuel meaning that the prize pool for that category will be shared equally among all the players in that category.

Since 1 November 2009 when new rules were introduced, the jackpot can now no longer grow larger than €185,000,000. This is the maximum amount and any additional money will be added to the jackpot pool for the next lower prize level. If the €185,000,000 jackpot is not won, it will only increase by €5 million each week.

Grand Prize

€77,000,000 Euro

Jackpots

There is a 'Plus' option for players living in Ireland and Portugal. For an extra €1 per line, players can enter an additional draw with the top prize each week of €500,000

Notable Wins

There have been many, many 8 figure jackpots won at Euro Millions. On 3 February 2006, the highest ever jackpot, however, of €183 million was won by three people. Just a few months later on 17 November 2006, there was another €183,000,000 jackpot. It had rolled over 11 times and since no ticket matched all the winning numbers, the jackpot was divided among 20 tickets that matched five numbers and one lucky star.

The largest single winner is an unnammed 25 Spanish women who won €112.6 million.

Distribution of Revenue

When the jackpot is not won, it is rolled over to the next draw.  

Half of the prize pool is distributed to players and 28% goes to good causes. 6% of the prize fund is allocated to a "Booster Fund" which can be used to boost the jackpot prize.