The EuroMillions lottery

The EuroMillions lottery was initially set up by the national lotteries of France, Spain and the United Kingdom and was unveiled in February 2004. The inaugural Euro Millions lottery draw occurred on February 13th 2004 in Paris. The UK, France and Spain were the only three countries taking part initially but lotteries from Austria, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland also committed to the draw in October 2004.

The Euro Millions lottery or the Euro lottery, as it is often branded, gathers the stakes of all 9 participating European countries presenting a considerable Euro Millions jackpot. With the amount of countries joining the European Union on the increase, this will undoubtedly lead to new countries signing up to the EuroMillions lotto. A growth in the quantity of people playing the Euro Millions lotto will lead to a further growth of the already sizable Euro Millions lottery jackpots.

How To Play The Euro Millions

Each participant is required to pick 5 main numbers from 1 to 50 and 2 "Lucky Star" numbers from 1 to 9. During the draw, 5 main and 2 lucky star numbers are then chosen at random from two draw machines containing numbered balls.

Euro Millions Prize Breakdown

The chances of scooping the EuroMillions jackpot is a distant 1 in 76 million but the odds of winning any prize is a fairly decent 1 in 24. If the jackpot is not won in a given week, it rolls over to the next week which leads to an ever increasing Euro Millions prize fund. New rules introduced on the 9th of February 2007 restrict the number of successive "rollovers" to eleven, with the jackpot rolling down to lower prize levels in the eleventh draw if the prize is not won.

The new rules also established Euro lotto "Super Draws" which take place twice each year and present jackpots in the region of £100 million. The difference with "Super Draws" is that the jackpot must be won during the week of the draw; consequently, if no ticket holder manages to match all the numbers drawn then the jackpot will be rolled down to the next winning prize tier.

Notable Euro Millions Wins

• On 8 February 2008, the "Super Draw" jackpot of €130 million was collected by sixteen individuals who matched the 5 main numbers and 1 "Lucky Star" number.

• On 10 August 2007, a forty year old previous Royal Mail postal officer from Scotland collected a EuroMillions jackpot of €52.6 million. Up till now, this is the largest lotto win yet in the United Kingdom.

• In November 2006, after rolling over 11 times, the Euro Millions jackpot arrived at €183 million and was split among 20 lucky ticket buyers.

Ways To Play Euro Millions

As a rule, to play the Euro Millions you would have to be a citizen of one of the nine participating member countries. However, with the launch of lottery ticket sales agents you can now obtain your required quantity of EuroMillions tickets online in spite of where you are located worldwide. If you are looking for a boost in your lottery winning odds, you may like to think about registering as a member of an e-Lottery EuroMillions syndicate. As a player in a EuroMillions syndicate you receive a thirty-six times greater chance of securing the jackpot when compared to everyone buying tickets. With e-Lottery there are very few geographic barriers restricting individuals from registering and therefore the existing membership is made up of persons from no fewer than 133 countries around the world.