Types of lottery

National lottery - The national lottery runs an increasing number of games. Currently, these are the main Lotto draw, Thunderball, Lotto Extra, Daily Play and Eurodraw.

The main lotto draw occurs on a Wednesday and a Saturday, in which you need to pick six numbers from 1-49 and then keep your fingers crossed.

If you match 3 or more main numbers, you're guaranteed to win, normally £10. Match more than 3 numbers and you'll win a share of the remaining prize money, which is known as the Pools Fund. Here's how the Pools Fund is shared out:

• Match 6 main numbers: 52% of the Pools Fund is available.
• Match 5 main numbers plus the bonus ball: 16% of the Pools Fund is available.
• Match 5 main numbers: 10% of the Pools Fund is available.
• Match 4 main numbers: 22% of the Pools Fund is available.

If you have won less than £75 you can collect your winnings from ANY retailer, some retailers will pay out prizes upto £500.

Prizes upto £10,000 can be claimed from Lottery Post Offices. If you need to find out where your nearest Lottery Post Office is or would like any more information you should ask your retailer or phone the Player Hotline on 0845 9 100 000.

Over £10,000 must be claimed from a National Lottery Regional Office. If you have matched 5 plus the bonus or the 6 main numbers then you should phone the National Lottery Player Hotline on 0845 9 100 000 immediately (Calls charged at local rate).

Online lotteries – There are an increasing number of lotteries that can be played online, with claims that they give away prizes of up to a million pounds each day. These games have not been around long, and it is as yet unclear how genuine they are. If you are going to bet with them, do some checking first, as some of them seem to be too obscure and too amateur looking for their claims to be genuine. Some of the better-known ones, which may well be genuine include Banana Lotto, Mouse Lotto, Lucky Surf and Daily Draw, all of which are free and make their money from advertising and resale of personal details.

Overseas lotteries – There are a huge number of overseas lotteries. Almost all major countries have a national lottery, and there are also lotteries run by the state authorities in the USA. Unfortunately, you are not normally able to directly enter these lotteries unless you reside or purchase a ticket from an outlet in that country. However, you can take part indirectly, by way of numbers betting.

Numbers betting – Numbers betting is a form of fixed odds betting based on the numbers drawn in one of the many overseas lotteries, numbers drawn by the betting companies themselves, but not so far the main UK National Lottery itself. As with lotto, you are required to pick a selection of numbers and hope to match them with the ones drawn in the actual event. There is no jackpot or pool of money as such – you are simply paid out according to how many numbers you predict and how many of them come up. As with the actual lottery, the payouts are considerably less than the true chance of your selection coming up, making these a fairly inefficient way of gambling, but one that does offer a minute chance of a massive win from a tiny stake.

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