How to Play UK Lotto, Round by Round

Under the licence in force since 7 June 2026, every UK Lotto draw is made in two rounds, each with its own six main numbers and its own bonus ball. As for how to play UK Lotto, you choose six numbers from 1 to 59, pay £2 for the line and enter a Wednesday or Saturday draw, and that one line is checked against both rounds. There's no second ticket to buy and no extra option to choose, because the £2 covers both rounds.

Two rounds, one £2 line

The game's current specification is set out in its licence, granted by the Gambling Commission. Measured against it, a few assumptions about the game don't hold up.

"My line is checked against one set of numbers"

It's checked against two. In each round, six main numbers are drawn at random from 1 to 59, then a bonus number is drawn from the same pool once the six are out. Your line is compared with Round 1, then separately with Round 2, and the licence makes every player eligible to win prizes in both rounds of the same draw.

The UK Lotto results page on lottery.fm shows both rounds of the latest draw, each with its own bonus ball, so you can hold a line up against one round and then the other.

"Three numbers in each round make six"

They don't. The licence is explicit that the six main numbers and bonus number drawn in Round 1 can't be combined with those drawn in Round 2. Three of your numbers matching Round 1 and the other three matching Round 2 make a Match 3 in each round, not a Match 6. Because a player can win in both rounds, that's two Match 3 results rather than a jackpot. The bonus ball follows the same rule: a bonus ball from Round 2 can't turn five numbers matched in Round 1 into Match 5 + bonus ball.

"Two rounds means two jackpots"

There's one jackpot per draw. In the licence's words, it "will be shared by any player matching six main numbers in either Round in a Draw." So if one line matches all six in Round 1 and another matches all six in Round 2, they're winners of the same jackpot and share it. If nobody matches six in either round, the jackpot rolls over to the next draw, up to the limit described under rollovers below.

The licence also puts a floor under it: the minimum jackpot prize pool is £2 million for Wednesday and Saturday draws alike.

Fixed prizes, one jackpot, odds per draw

"Match 2 gets you a free Lucky Dip"

Not under the current licence. Every UK Lotto prize is a cash prize, and Match 2 pays £1. In a standard draw, the jackpot is the only prize that's shared, and every other tier pays a fixed amount to each winning line, subject to a prize-capping rule that applies only if a draw's fixed prizes would cost more than the "Capped Prize Fund" the licence defines for that purpose.

Here's the standard ladder, with each tier's prize and its odds for a single £2 line:

• Match 6 (all six main numbers in one round) — a share of the jackpot · 1 in 22,528,738

• Match 5 + bonus ball — £1,000,000 · 1 in 3,754,790

• Match 5 — £1,000 · 1 in 72,208

• Match 4 — £50 · 1 in 1,091

• Match 3 — £10 · 1 in 48.4

• Match 2 — £1 · 1 in 5.4

Across all six tiers, the odds of a line winning a prize of some kind are 1 in 4.9.

The bonus ball matters in just one place on that ladder: five main numbers plus that round's bonus ball. It can't stand in for a sixth main number, since Match 6 means all six main numbers.

One more rule protects jackpot winners when the jackpot is split between several winners. If a share would come in below the Match 5 + bonus ball prize, the licence has the operator top each share up from reserves to at least that amount. The top-up has a limit, though, so a jackpot share can still end up below the Match 5 + bonus ball prize if that limit is reached.

"Those odds are for one round"

They aren't. In the licence's prize table, the odds column is headed "Approximate Odds of Winning a Prize in a Draw", and a UK Lotto draw means both rounds together. So the 1 in 22,528,738 for Match 6 describes one £2 line across the whole draw, with both of its chances counted. Neither that figure nor any other on the ladder is a single round's odds.

"Past results say something about the next draw"

They don't. The licence requires the numbers in each round to be selected at random. Draws are independent: nothing in past results changes the odds of a future draw, and a line you pick yourself has exactly the same chance as a Lucky Dip. Buying more lines puts more entries in the draw at £2 each; it doesn't change the odds on any line you already hold.

Rollovers, raffle codes, HotPicks and claiming

How far a UK Lotto jackpot can roll

The licence lets the jackpot roll over five times. If it still isn't won in the fifth rollover draw, which the licence calls the "Must Be Won Draw", it doesn't roll on again. It's rolled down instead: each Match 2 winning entry in that draw gets £5 rather than £1, and whatever is left of the jackpot after those prizes is shared equally among the Match 3 winners. The licence sets out fallbacks for a draw in which those tiers have no winners, and a capped top-up from a reserve fund if the jackpot can't cover the £5 prizes. A draw that offers special-event prizes can also be designated a Must Be Won draw.

The raffle code on special-event draws

Some draws carry extra prizes. The Gambling Commission's summary of the June 2026 changes mentions the introduction of special event draws, the Guaranteed Millionaire Raffle, throughout the year, and the licence allows guaranteed £1 million raffle prizes on top of the jackpot. On those draws, every line bought gets its own raffle code of four letters and eight numbers, and a raffle prize is won when a line's code matches one selected at random after the main draw. Details of each event, including how to win, have to be published before the draw. A ticket from one of those draws has two things to check: the numbers, round by round, and the code.

Lotto HotPicks is a game of its own

Lotto HotPicks takes its winning numbers from the UK Lotto draw but has its own licence and costs £1 an entry. You pick between one and five numbers, depending on which of its five games you play, and it uses only the main numbers from each round, never the bonus balls. You don't need a UK Lotto line to play it, and a UK Lotto line doesn't enter you into it.

Once a line has won

The claim period is 180 days, and under the licence it begins on the day after the draw. For the claim itself, follow The National Lottery's own instructions. UK Lotto prizes are tax-free in the UK; if a win raises questions about your own tax position beyond that, a qualified adviser is the person to ask.

Whatever the two rounds bring, the money spent on UK Lotto is the price of the entertainment; it isn't an investment. If gambling stops feeling fun, you can talk to someone for free, in confidence, at any hour — the National Gambling Helpline (GamCare) is on 0808 8020 133.

Always confirm winning numbers, prize amounts, and deadlines with the official operator before acting on a ticket — the operator's published results are the only ones that count.

Sources

• Gambling Commission · licence dated 7 June 2026, page last updated 10 August 2026 · "Section 6 Licence Lotto - June 2026" · UK Lotto licence page on the Gambling Commission site and the licence itself (PDF)

• Gambling Commission · licence dated 7 June 2026, page last updated 10 August 2026 · "Section 6 Lotto HotPicks - June 2026" · Lotto HotPicks licence page on the Gambling Commission site and the licence itself (PDF)

• Gambling Commission · last updated 20 July 2026 · "The current National Lottery licence" · Gambling Commission summary of the June 2026 changes to UK Lotto

• Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, on GOV.UK · 8 December 2020 · "Government response to the consultation on the minimum age to play National Lottery games" · Government response on the National Lottery minimum age

• lottery.fm game facts database · facts as of 4 October 2026 · "UK Lotto — game facts" · UK Lotto game facts on lottery.fm