IT'S Friday which means the return of the Euromillions and this Christmas Eve it's another big one.
Punters have the opportunity at scooping £58 million tonight, with the draw being held at 8:45pm.
Just before at 8:00pm the Thunderball draw will take place for the usual jackpot of £500k.
We'll bring you the winning numbers here, live on this page as the appear.
Read our lottery live blog below for the latest numbers and results…
- Louis Allwood
Tonight's Lotto draws
It's a Friday which means the return of the Euromillions and it's a big one.
Punters have the opportunity at scooping £58 million tonight, with the draw being held at 8:45pm.
Just before at 8:00pm the Thunderball draw will take place for the usual jackpot of £500k.
- Louis Allwood
Beginners luck
A woman won £184million on her first ever EuroMillion lottery ticket after buying it “on a hunch”.
The young woman – who wanted to remain anonymous – was presented with the prize at her home in Tahiti after it went unclaimed since October 15.
According to the EuroMillions website, her ticket was the only entry that matched all seven numbers after the jackpot had hit its cap of €220m (£184m).
The mystery woman said she had never entered the EuroMillions draw in her life but had grown up watching her grandfather play.
“I was waiting for the right moment to play, and that day I had a hunch,” she said.
“Everything is possible, you just have to believe in it. Before checking my ticket, I felt a shiver in my back.
- Milica Cosic
Your chances of unlikely events
Experts reveal chances of unlikely events – from death by shark to winning lottery.
Number - crunching experts at cardchat.com have worked out the likelihood of some very unlikely events.
- 1000 – 1 = Seeing a shooting star.
- 37,500 in 1 = Being bitten by a snake.
- 3,700,000 in 1 = Being killed by a shark.
- 1,000,000,000,000 in 1 = Meeting your doppelganger.
- 45,000,000 in 1 = Winning the lottery.
- 500-1 = Being born with an extra toe.
Read the article in full here.
- Milica Cosic
Number 27 most likely to help punter scoop a jackpot
National Lottery ball number 27 is the most likely to help punters win a jackpot, researchers say.
It has made more appearances than any other in 3,071 draws in the past ten years.
The number came up 399 times in the UK National Lottery, Thunderball, EuroMillions and Irish Lotto.
That is 141 more times than number 57, the unluckiest number, which was drawn just 258 times.
The second luckiest is 54, which appeared 387 times. It was followed by 29, 42, 52 and 58 in joint third on 381 times.
The next luckiest was number 20 with 378. Then came 23, with 372.
- Milica Cosic
Callie Rogers campaigns
Callie is now campaigning for the government to raise the age limit for the National Lottery.
Gambling is now more popular among children than skateboarding and campaigners believe an age limit of 16 entices young people into a habit of betting.
Callie feels she was too young to cope with the pressure and wants to stop other kids going through the same problems she faced.
She told the Mirror: “You are only a 16, with all that responsibility. At that age, you can get the best advice ever. But you are not in a position to listen. I was too young.
“I suffer from such bad anxiety when I am going to meet new people. It preys on my mind, what a new partner’s family will think of me, or even new friends. I still get abuse just because of who I am.”
- Milica Cosic
Top tips for playing the lottery
Have you ever wondered the secrets to winning big in the lottery? Is it pure luck or is there a system to it…?
- Avoid computer picks. It lowers your odds of winning.
- On scratchcards, try buying 10 of one ticket instead of several different tickets.
- Mix up your numbers.
- Even it out – Don’t pick all odd or all even numbers.
- Split from the crowd, so don’t play patterns.
- Apparently, you should avoid anniversaries, birthday’s and dates.
- Avoid playing winning numbers that have been drawn before, because every combination has a chance of coming up once every half a million drawings.
- Milica Cosic
The dinner lady who vowed to keep working
Karen Dakin, 53, won in the draw hours before Mother’s Day, with numbers based on the birth of her son Callum, 14.
She said: “My son has, in some strange way, helped give me the most amazing Mother’s Day gift of all time!”
She added: “I’ve always picked numbers special to me, including my son Callum’s date of birth – the year and the time – so I instantly recognised the winning numbers.
“What an amazing turn of events.”
Read more here.
- Milica Cosic
‘NO guarantee money will buy happiness’
Martyn and Kay Tott got the shock of their lives when they realised they’d won £3million back in 2001 – six months after buying the ticket.
By the time they saw an appeal for the winner to come forward, they couldn’t find the ticket.
After 45 agonising days of deliberating, Camelot told the devastated couple that they weren’t going to receive the cash.
“Having that money taken away was torture,” Martyn told the Mail on Sunday.
“For a long time I lost sight of who I was and what I believed in. But I can honestly say I’m glad I didn’t get the £3million now.
“There is no guarantee it would have brought me happiness.”
- Milica Cosic
Set For Life winner becomes full time ghost hunter
A WOMAN who scooped £10,000 a month for 30 years on the National Lottery Set For Life quit her job to become a ghost hunter with her husband.
Part-time paranormal investigator Laura Hoyle, 39, has decided to ditch her day job to pursue her spooky passion with Kirk Stevens, 37, after their big win.
The 39-year-old is used to shocks – after realising she had landed the life-changing amount of money when she initially thought she had only won a fiver.
Laura was able to immediately jack in her job at a logistics firm, after realising the cash could allow her to concentrate on her ghost-hunting hobby full-time.
Read more here.
- Milica Cosic
Lucky Leo's
Well, according to the stars, it seems that some of us are much more likely to get it than others.
Before we get to the big reveal of which sign is most likely to pick the right balls and become a millionaire, let’s take a look at some of the other lucky stars in the zodiac.
- Leo
- Virgo
- Scorpio
Is the Set For Life worth playing?
The game with the best odds, in terms of winning the top prize, is the Thunderball.
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.
Woman wins on first time ‘hunch’
A woman won £184million on her first ever EuroMillion lottery ticket after buying it “on a hunch”.
The young woman – who wanted to remain anonymous – was presented with the prize at her home in Tahiti after it went unclaimed since October 15.
According to the EuroMillions website, her ticket was the only entry that matched all seven numbers after the jackpot had hit its cap of €220m (£184m).
The mystery woman said she had never entered the EuroMillions draw in her life but had grown up watching her grandfather play.
“I was waiting for the right moment to play, and that day I had a hunch,” she said.
“Everything is possible, you just have to believe in it. Before checking my ticket, I felt a shiver in my back.
‘I sill shop in Primark despite winning £1.8m’
A NATIONAL Lottery winning dinner lady still lives in her council house, shops in Primark and drives a Kia despite bagging £1.8million.
Trish Emson, 51, explained money or her millionaire status did not change her or her partner Graham Norton, also 51, who still works as a decorator.
The down-to-earth pair have even managed to keep their teenage son Benjamin, 17, in check – and don’t even give him pocket money.
The modest mum, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said: “Being rich doesn’t make you posh or a better person.
“I don’t like showing off and bragging about money and I can’t be posh anyway.
“To look at me you wouldn’t think I was a millionaire, but if I have to dress up I feel fake, I prefer my jeans,” she told The Mirror.
Read the article in full here.
Lotto and Thunderball TONIGHT
Here’s a timetable for all UK lottery games including Lotto, EuroMillions and Set For Life.
There is a draw six nights a week.
It should be noted that there are no draws on Sundays.
Explained: How long do winners have to claim their money?
Winners from different countries have different deadlines to claim their prize.
In Austria, winners have a whole three years to claim the prize before it is returned to the lottery and used to fund boosted prizes.
Belgian winners, on the other hand, only have around 140 days before the money is returned to the Belgian National Lottery.
The least amount of time to snap up the jackpot goes to France and Luxembourg.
Winners from Ireland, Portugal and Spain all have around 90 days to tell the world they’ve won.
- Milica Cosic
‘NO guarantee money will buy happiness’
Martyn and Kay Tott got the shock of their lives when they realised they’d won £3million back in 2001 – six months after buying the ticket.
By the time they saw an appeal for the winner to come forward, they couldn’t find the ticket.
After 45 agonising days of deliberating, Camelot told the devastated couple that they weren’t going to receive the cash.
“Having that money taken away was torture,” Martyn told the Mail on Sunday.
“For a long time I lost sight of who I was and what I believed in. But I can honestly say I’m glad I didn’t get the £3million now.
“There is no guarantee it would have brought me happiness.”
- Milica Cosic
Explained: What happens to unclaimed prizes?
Any cash that isn’t claimed after a total of 180 days from a game played in the UK goes to National Lottery projects across the country.
Folks in Ireland have just half that time to claim too, with only 90 days before the prize money is off the table.
Once the claim period is over, the ticket officially expires and the owner of the lottery ticket will no longer be able to claim any of their winnings.
But after that time has expired, any unclaimed prizes, plus any interest they might have accumulated in that time, are allocated to the National Lottery’s Good Causes fund instead.
This will usually then go on to help fund things like sport programmes or local community buildings or other projects.
- Milica Cosic
National Lottery timetable
Here’s a timetable for all UK lottery games including Lotto, EuroMillions and Set For Life.
There is a draw 6 nights a week.
The draws will be at 8pm and 8.15pm.
- Milica Cosic
Some signs are luckier than others
According to the stars some signs are luckier than others, so read on and see if you should pop out and buy that winning lotto ticket. It could be you!
Leo – Oh, Leo we knew you’d be one of the lucky ones. You always look good, have a string of admirers and just tend to always be prowling on the bright side of the street.
Virgo – It’s no coincidence that planner extraordinaire is one of the luckiest signs of the zodiac. Virgos only become successful because they put in the hours and werk, girl.
Scorpio – Magnanimous Scorpio has definitely got it going on when it comes to luck. They’ll often find themselves in the right place at the right time as if by magic, much to the annoyance of some less fortunate souls
- Milica Cosic
Odds for easiest lotteries to win around the world
- FranceLoto – odds 1:5.99
- Swedish Lottery – odds 1:7
- Oz Lotto – odds 1:8
- Polish Mini Lotto – odds 1:8.5
- UK National Lottery – odds 1:9.3
- Spanish Lotto – odds 1:10
- Austria Lotto – odds 1:12
- Irish Lotto – odds 1:13
- Mega Millions Lottery – odds 1:24
- Powerball Lotto – odds 1:24.87
- Joseph Gamp
Dad’s pocket money led to freak win
A hospital visit to see her father, led lucky Libby Elliot, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to win £2,169,664 on the lottery.
Shortly before leaving, he gave his grandchildren pocket money and “two pounds pocket money” to his daughter too.
In 2013, Libby, then 57, told the Daily Record: “On a whim, I put it on the Lucky Dip on my way home.”
The next day, her dad couldn’t believe the news and was amazed that Libby was in hospital with him rather than planning ways to spend her cash.
She recalled him saying: “Look at you, you’re a multi-millionaire and yet you’re sitting here beside me.”
Libby said that memory “still makes me cry” and since then her life has changed drastically.
She went on to lose 11 stone and went “travelling the world on dream trips – from Jerusalem to Route 66 to Buenos Aires”.
- Joseph Gamp
Won twice in same draw after ‘forgetting’ ticket
Derek and Dawn Ladner, from Redruth, Cornwall, were thrilled when the same six numbers they used every week finally came up in the midweek lottery draw.
They initially claimed £479,142 from the £2,395,710 jackpot due to bagging the top prize with five other winners.
However, a week later Derek, then 57, was in for quite the shock when he found a second lottery ticket in his pocket.
It was from that same winning draw and thanks to his forgetfulness – when he bet twice with the same lucky numbers – their winnings increased to £958,284.
- Joseph Gamp
Bingo win just before Nan death
At an attempt to take the family’s mind off the death of her beloved Nan, one woman went to her local bingo and won £50,000.
SHOCKED at having won such a large sun, the woman from Middlesbrough said that she felt her “nana was watching over her.”
24-year-old Rebecca, who works for the NHS as a Radiographer was just after finishing a night shift when she was informed of her Nana’s passing.
“I received a phone call off my mam that Sunday morning to say that nana had passed away. She had been in hospital for four days as she was poorly for a while and then she got Covid” she said.
Het nana Winnie, was mum to Rebeccas’s father Barry. Barry was called in to see his mother the night before she passed, it was then that he first told her about Rebecca’s recent engagement.
Read the full story.
- Joseph Gamp
Rule shake up means have to be 18 for scratch cards
A major rules shake-up to National Lottery tickets and scratch card will change who is able to buy tickets from October this year.
Those feeling lucky now have to be over 18 to play, as the minimum age goes up from 16 to 18.
That means it is illegal for any retailer to sell these goods to anyone under the age of 18 – and will apply to favourite games like Lotto and the EuroMillions.
The new rules come into effect from today after being announced as part of a major crackdown on gambling laws last year.
Online sales of lottery tickets and scratch cards have already been banned – this came into force in April this year.
- Joseph Gamp
‘Mr Sensible’ also bought a SECOND-HAND car as first purchase
Steve and Lenka Thomas’ first purchase was a second-hand VW van for window fitter Steve and Volvo XC90 for Lenka.
Friends also say they are baffled that the pair and their three children still seem in no rush to move, despite their two teenage sons sharing a bedroom.
“I can’t think of anything they’ve bought,” they said.
“Steve bought a VW van but even that was second-hand.”
Another friend added: “They could have anywhere in the world.
“They could go and live the life of the jet-set.”
After winning the EuroMillions jackpot Steve, who fits windows and conservatories, continued to work to complete his outstanding orders.
Source: Read Full Article
