EuroMillions Lottery
9th May 2008 7:11 PM
The first EuroMillions draw took place on February 13th 2004 despite the concept being born back in 1994 with the original plans being to launch when Europe transferred to the single European currency, the Euro. In the beginning there were just three countries taking part – France, Spain and the UK but it wasn’t long before Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal joined in on October 8th 2004.
How to Play EuroMillions
For every ticket you purchase you will need to choose 5 numbers between 1 and 50 and then two Lucky Stars numbered between 1 and 9.
To win the big jackpot obviously you have to match all five numbers plus the two Lucky Stars.
Outside the UK
From the UK
EuroMillions
The first prize jackpot was a huge 15 million euros but now prizes have been known to hit 183,000,000 euros! The biggest single winner to date was from the Ireland, Dolores McNamara won a staggering 115 million euros in a draw that took place on 31st July 2005 – the jackpot had rolled over a total of 9 times boosting the jackpot to this life changing amount.
EuroMillions offers players a 1 in 24 chance of winning with the odds of not matching any of the main balls but getting both Lucky Stars being 1 in 62. Not that you want to get just two Lucky Stars, there is no prize award for that.
Here is a closer look at the odds as found at Wikipedia.
| Main Numbers | Lucky Stars | Odds | Winning probability | % of prize fund |
| 2 | 1 | 1 in 39 | 0.0256 | 24% |
| 1 | 2 | 1 in 103 | 0.00971 | 10.1% |
| 3 | 0 | 1 in 367 | 0.00253 | 4.7% |
| 2 | 2 | 1 in 538 | 0.00186 | 4.4% |
| 3 | 1 | 1 in 551 | 0.00181 | 5.1% |
| 3 | 2 | 1 in 7,705 | 0.00013 | 1% |
| 4 | 0 | 1 in 16,143 | 0.0000619 | 0.7% |
| 4 | 1 | 1 in 24,215 | 0.0000413 | 1% |
| 4 | 2 | 1 in 339,002 | 0.00000295 | 1.5% |
| 5 | 0 | 1 in 3,632,160 | 0.000000275 | 2.1% |
| 5 | 1 | 1 in 5,448,240 | 0.000000182 | 7.4% |
| 5 | 2 | 1 in 76,275,360 | 0.0000000131 | 22% |
Interesting winner’s facts
- Vaccaro Joseph, a guitarist from France, won 39.1 million euros in the draw on 31st August 2007
- Scotland saw a big winner on 10th August 2007 – a former administrator for the Royal Mail, 40 year old Angela Kelly, and scooped 52.6 million euros
- 9th February 2007, after rolling over six times, 75,753,123 euros landed in the bank of a Belgian man – the second largest win in EuroMillions history and the biggest win in Belgium
- An eleven times rollover jackpot of 180 million was shared by three lucky winners on 3rd February 2006 – two winners came from France and one from Portugal.
Page Last Updated: 30/06/2008 10:17:41
