The National Lottery Lotto game is the UK’s flagship lottery draw, and it’s pretty straightforward. Players choose six different numbers from a given range (currently 1 to 59) on each ticket. You can either pick your own lucky numbers or opt for a randomly generated “Lucky Dip”.

Each Lotto play (one set of six numbers) costs £2 per line as of today. (It was originally £1 per play until it doubled in 2013.) Drawings take place twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. The Wednesday draw was introduced a few years after the launch (the first Wednesday draw took place in 1997), complementing the traditional Saturday draw. Nowadays, the draws are broadcast online (for example, live on the National Lottery’s YouTube channel) at around 8pm on Wednesdays and 7:45pm on Saturdays.

The prize structure in Lotto is divided into tiers based on how many numbers you match. To win anything at all, you need to match at least 2 numbers (which wins you a free ticket for a future draw). The more numbers you match, the bigger the prize. The jackpot is won by matching all six numbers, and if multiple people do that, they split the jackpot equally. Prizes are also given for matching 3, 4, 5, or 5 numbers + the Bonus Ball, with increasing reward amounts at each level. For example, matching three numbers today wins a fixed £30 prize, and matching five numbers + Bonus typically wins £1,000,000 (a guaranteed million for that category). The jackpot starts at a base level (which can be several million pounds) and rolls over to the next draw if no one wins, often growing quickly. In summary: pick 6 numbers, pay your £2, and if enough of your numbers come up in the draw, you win a prize – anything from a free ticket to a life-changing multi-million pound jackpot.