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Irish lotto

The Irish love to gamble. So it comes as no surprise that the ‘Irish Play’ attracts a lot of people. At Wednesday and Saturday evening at 20:00 the participants of the Ireland Lotto are in front of their television to watch the draw. During the draw several numbers appear on little balls. If these numbers match with those on your ticket, you can call yourself a millionaire from now on.

The Irish Lotto

The Irish Lotto was established by the government in 1988. Since 2014 it’s organized by Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI). The rules of the Irish Play are the same as every other Lotto game. After you’ve purchased a ticket you need to choose six numbers from a range of 1 to 47. These numbers need to be the same as the numbers from the draw. In that case you win the Jackpot. This can be a lot of money. For example, one player once won 13.7 million euros in January 2016! The Irish Lotto offers some other great prize money as well. An overview:

Numbers Average prize money Irish Lotto

  • 2 and 1 bonus ball 2.55 pounds
  • 3 4.55 pounds
  • 3 and 1 bonus ball 20,81 pounds
  • 4 41 pounds
  • 5 1381,76 pounds
  • 5 and 1 bonus ball 26,910,16 pounds
  • 6 3,877,264,59 pounds

Irish Lotto Plus 1 and Plus 2

Since 2000 and 2002, you could also play in the Irish Lotto Plus 1 or Irish Lotto Plus 2. This is a good idea because these are supplementary games that give you an extra chance to win. You only have to pay a small additional fee on your ticket. You don’t have to choose extra numbers, because those used in the standard Irish Lotto are part of the Plus 1 and Plus 2 Lotto as well. So it could happen that you win prize money in both the Irish Lotto and Plus 1 and/or Plus 2! For example, it’s possible to win about 360.000 pounds extra with six correct numbers in the Irish Lotto Plus 1.

matching numbers

How more matching numbers you have on your ticket, how bigger the win will be. Perhaps you have five matching numbers or 4 matching numbers and the bonus ball. In the first case you win 3600 pounds, and in the latter 36 pounds. So one number can make a lot of difference. It’s definitely worth it to play in the Irish Lotto Plus 2 as well, although the prize money is lower. For example, you can win 182.000 pounds extra with 6 matching numbers. In case of 5 matching numbers and one bonus ball this is 1800 pounds, still a nice amount of money. With just 4 numbers you only win 7 pounds, but you can still call yourself a winner!