The table below briefly summarises how the UK National Lottery operates:
Ticket: Up to 7 sets of 6 unique numbers (1 to 49) for up to 16 draws Ticket cost: £1 per set of 6 numbers per draw - cannot be resold Typical sales: £28 million, rising to £38 million for rollovers Draw frequency: Every Saturday and Wednesday evening - ticket sales close at 19.30 GMT Balls drawn: 6 main balls plus a bonus ball from a single set of 49 balls Ball sets: One set randomly selected from 10 possible ball sets Machine: One machine randomly selected from 4 possible machines Next Televised: Wednesday, BBC 1, 20.50-21.00 GMT (draw at 20.58 GMT) Next Results: Wednesday, BBC 1, 21.45 GMT approx. Prize structure: Proportion of ticket sales/rollovers, except 3-match (£10) Super Draws: 5% of sales reserved for "top-ups" every 3-4 months approx. Jackpot prize: Dependent on # of jackpot winners - Wed: £4m, Sat: £8m Jackpot chance: 1 in 13,983,816 Any prize odds: 54 to 1 approx. Max rollovers: 4. After 5 jackpot-winless draws, pool goes to 5+bonus winners Prize %age: 45% of the total staked for each draw is returned as prizes Winnings: Single lump sum tax-free payment Legal players: 16 years of age or older and resident in or visiting the UK