Irish Lotto Tickets

Irish Lotto tickets give lottery players a much better chance of winning a lottery jackpot than most other lottery tickets, and that’s because the odds of winning the Irish Lotto jackpot are an impressive 1 in 8,145,060. Compare those Irish Lotto jackpot odds with Mega Millions jackpot odds of 1 in 175,711,536 or with Powerball jackpot odds of 1 in 195,249,054 and it is plain for all to see that Irish Lotto tickets have quite a lot going for them. Of course, players will still need ‘the luck of the Irish’ to land the top prize with an Irish Lotto ticket, but not quite as much luck as they would need when playing other lottery games.

The odds of winning a jackpot with an Irish Lotto ticket are as good as they are because the Irish Lotto game involves fewer numbers than most other games. Irish Lotto players have to select 6 numbers from 1 to 45 and match all six to win the top prize. A seventh ‘Bonus Ball’ number is also drawn after the main numbers to determine the winners of non-jackpot prizes, but this plays no role in determining the winner(s) of the jackpot itself.

The Irish Lotto jackpot is always worth at least €2 million and if no player wins then the jackpot sum rolls over, which means that jackpots can often be a lot bigger. Of course, if several Irish Lotto tickets all match the six main numbers required, the owners of those Irish Lotto tickets share the jackpot equally.

Irish Lotto draws are held twice each week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. As with most other lottery games, the Irish Lotto allows players to select their own numbers or to enter a randomly generated line of numbers using a Quick Pick option. The odds of winning a prize are of course identical, regardless of which approach is taken.

All Irish Lotto prizes are paid as a single cash lump sum and are tax-free, so if the advertised jackpot is €2 million and you are the owner of the only Irish Lotto ticket that matches all six main numbers, you would get every cent of that €2 million without any delay.

If your Irish Lotto tickets don’t win a jackpot then don’t despair because there are seven ways to win an Irish Lotto prize, as detailed in the table below: