The Ireland Only Raffle EuroMillions players in Ireland are automatically entered into isn't something you add at the counter. Every line comes with a raffle code of its own, and the rules provide, funds permitting, for ten prizes of €5,000 at each Tuesday and Friday draw. It's already in the price, too: the €2.50 for a line covers two plays sold together, €2.20 for EuroMillions and €0.30 for the raffle, and neither can be bought without the other. EuroMillions Plus is the optional part. For €1 more per panel, it puts your five main numbers into a second draw with fixed prizes up to €500,000. All three are run by Ireland's National Lottery, promoted by Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI).
The two plays inside a €2.50 line
Under rule 6.1 of the Irish EuroMillions rules, entering EuroMillions and the Ireland Only Raffle means playing at least one panel "at a total cost of €2.50". Inside that total, one EuroMillions play costs €2.20 and one raffle play costs €0.30, and each additional play costs the same combined €2.50.
The next clause settles whether a player can skip the Ireland Only Raffle: "EuroMillions Game and Ireland Only Raffle cannot be played individually." So there's no €2.20 EuroMillions-only line in Ireland, and no raffle code without a EuroMillions line beside it.
For one panel, the operator's prices work like this:
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EuroMillions with the raffle: €2.50, the minimum play for a draw.
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The same panel with Plus: €3.50, as the National Lottery's How to Play guide (issued September 2026) lists it.
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Advance Play: under rule 6.1(d), the panel cost multiplied by the number of draws chosen; the Advance Play box offers two, four, six or eight.
The Ireland Only Raffle on every Irish EuroMillions line
Each EuroMillions line played in Ireland gets an Ireland Only Raffle code, nine characters long and made up of four letters and five numbers. The codes are issued in sequence from IBBB00000 to IZZZ99999, one for each EuroMillions play (rule 8.2).
A ticket may not print each code separately. The rules let codes appear "in range format", as a span on the ticket, with each one registered on the National Lottery's central computer system. A winning code inside a printed range still counts: rule 8.3 covers exactly that case.
How the raffle is drawn and paid for
The raffle has its own draw twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday, and the winning codes are picked by electronic random number generator hardware or another process the National Lottery chooses. The National Lottery's EuroMillions page describes ten Irish winners of €5,000 at every draw as guaranteed. The rules add a condition: provided there are sufficient funds in the Ireland Only Raffle Fund, each draw has ten individual prizes of €5,000 (rule 8.3).
That fund is where part of the raffle's 30 cent goes. Rule 8 puts 15 cent from each raffle play into the Ireland Only Raffle Fund, which pays every raffle prize. Money a draw doesn't need moves to a reserve fund, used whenever the raffle fund falls short and available to increase a raffle prize or add extra prizes to a draw. Any change to the prize line-up is announced publicly before sales begin.
One code can win only one prize in a given raffle draw, and a ticket holding more than one winning code is paid the sum of those prizes. There's no fixed odds figure for the raffle: lottery.ie's odds table says the odds "depend on number of panels played".
When a EuroMillions Raffle uses the same codes
A second raffle can also run on the same codes. Rule 7.9 lets the Irish operator and the other EuroMillions co-promoters hold a EuroMillions Raffle alongside a draw, with its date and the exact number and value of its prizes advertised in advance. A ticket for that draw has its Ireland Only Raffle codes entered automatically, and one code can win in both raffles.
EuroMillions Plus puts your five main numbers into a second draw
Under the Plus rules, Plus is available to players in the Republic of Ireland only. It costs €1 per panel, minimum one panel, and must be played with EuroMillions, with the number of EuroMillions panels deciding the number of Plus plays. On a paper playslip, you mark the Plus box in the top left-hand corner after your numbers or Quick Pick. A ticket with Plus has the words PLUS YES printed on it.
Here is how a Plus line is checked:
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Only the five main numbers go in. The How to Play guide spells it out: your first five main numbers, "but not your Lucky Star numbers".
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Plus draws numbers of its own. The Plus draw follows the main EuroMillions draw on Tuesday and Friday and selects five winning numbers from 1 to 50. Your five are checked against those, since the rules base every Plus result on "the associated Plus Draw".
The Plus rules set a fixed value for each prize category below; odds are from lottery.ie's Plus page:
| Plus prize category | Main numbers matched | Prize | Approximate odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Match 5 | 5 | €500,000 | 1 in 2,118,760 |
| Match 4 | 4 | €2,000 | 1 in 9,417 |
| Match 3 | 3 | €20 | 1 in 214 |
None of them rolls over: if a category goes unwon in a Plus game, its prize money doesn't carry forward (rule 7(3)). The top prize isn't shared either. According to the How to Play guide, when a Plus draw has more than one top prize winner, each wins the full amount, with prize limits applying.
Rule 7(3)(e) caps the total prize fund for any one Plus game at €3,000,000. If the prizes at normal values would come to more than €3 million, every prize in that game is scaled by one formula: the normal prize, multiplied by 3,000,000 and divided by the total cost of all prizes at normal values, then rounded to the nearest euro. The rules define the Plus prize fund as 54.19 per cent of gross revenue from a Plus game, subject to that cap.
On the chance of any prize at all, lottery.ie gives 1 in 209.24 for Plus alone and 1 in 12.22 for EuroMillions with Plus, and its EuroMillions page gives 1 in 13 for EuroMillions. Each draw involved — main, Plus or raffle — is a separate random selection, independent of every draw before it, so earlier results don't shift the odds for later ones.
One shared draw, with Irish prizes paid in euro
EuroMillions itself is one draw wherever it's played. The rules describe the participating lotteries as having "a shared prize fund, a common Draw and a common game mechanic". A line is five main numbers from 1 to 50 and two Lucky Stars from 1 to 12, and the draws are on Tuesday and Friday. According to lottery.fm's game facts, as of 13 November 2026, matching all five main numbers and both Lucky Stars is a 1 in 139,838,160 chance on a single line. The UK plays the same draw, with prizes in pounds and add-ons of its own; our UK EuroMillions guide covers that side.
Claims stay local, though. Under rule 9.1, PLI pays prizes only on its own tickets, not on any issued by another EuroMillions operator, and a player can claim only against the operator that sold the ticket. On lottery.ie it's put more briefly: you may only claim a EuroMillions prize in the country where the ticket was bought. And unlike Plus, the main game's prizes aren't fixed. The jackpot is won or shared and grows from draw to draw when nobody wins it, and every other prize category depends on the size of the prize pool and the number of winners.
Collecting a prize in Ireland: 90 days and the paperwork
The claim period for Irish EuroMillions is 90 days. The Plus rules spell out how that's counted for Plus prizes: from the date of the draw in which the winning numbers were drawn, after which an unclaimed prize is forfeited. On an Advance Play ticket, though, the Plus time limit expires 90 days after the first draw date the ticket is eligible for.
Under rule 9.1, EuroMillions prizes up to and including Match 4 and 2 Lucky Stars may be available for payment the day after the draw, and the Plus rules say the same of every Plus category below Match 5. Plus Match 5 is paid by cheque only, at the National Lottery, 1GQ, George's Quay, Dublin 2, D02 Y098.
On the practical side:
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Keep the printed ticket. For a paper ticket, lottery.ie calls it your only valid record for claiming a prize, and the Plus rules add that a playslip has no prize value.
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Draw nights have a sales break. Draws are at 7.45pm, with results on lottery.ie after 9.25pm. Sales close at 7.30pm on draw days (7.25pm online, according to lottery.ie's Plus page) and reopen at 8.30pm.
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Tax. Prizes from Ireland's National Lottery are tax-free. For questions about your own position, Revenue or a tax adviser is the place to ask.
Past winning numbers from the main draw are on lottery.fm's Irish EuroMillions page; the National Lottery publishes the winning raffle codes after each draw.
Plus or no Plus, a line is money spent on a game, so it's worth settling the budget before the slip goes over the counter.
If gambling has stopped feeling fun, free and confidential support is available day and night from GamblingCare.ie on 1800 936 725.
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
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Irish National Lottery (Premier Lotteries Ireland) · How to Play EuroMillions · lottery.ie's EuroMillions game information page
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Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC · EuroMillions Rules, Issue 5, October 2024 · the EuroMillions game rules on lottery.ie (PDF)
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Irish National Lottery (Premier Lotteries Ireland) · How to Play EuroMillions Plus · lottery.ie's EuroMillions Plus game information page
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Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC · Plus Rules (EuroMillions), Issue 5, October 2024 · the EuroMillions Plus game rules on lottery.ie (PDF)
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The National Lottery (Ireland) · date of issue September 2026 · How to Play: your handy guide to playing National Lottery games · the National Lottery's How to Play guide (PDF)
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lottery.fm game facts database · facts as of 13 November 2026 · EuroMillions (Ireland) — game facts · Irish EuroMillions game facts on lottery.fm
