National Lottery announces major changes to Lotto games

This is the first update to the Lotto games in eight years.

In a statement on Thursday (16 July), it said the updates will come into effect this autumn and are being introduced "to create more millionaires across the country".

Less balls

The number of balls will be reduced from 47 to 45, marking the "official retirement" of numbers 46 and 47 from play.  

This means "better chances of winning across every prize tier in Lotto, Lotto Plus One and Lotto Plus Two".

According to the National Lottery, each of the individual draws will see the odds of winning the jackpot or top prize improve from 1 in 10.7 million to 1 in 8.1 million.

Lotto Plus 2 Top Prize Increase

The Lotto Plus 2 top prize will also increase from €250,000 to €1 million, meaning more opportunities for the National Lottery to "make brand-new millionaires."

The Lotto Plus 1 top prize will remain at €1 million.

New Lotto Draw on Monday

Players will also have more chances to play each week, with a new Lotto draw being added on Monday.

Each of the Lotto draws on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday will be livestreamed at 7.55pm on the National Lottery's website and broadcast before the RTÉ Nine O’Clock News on RTÉ One.   

Other Changes

The Lotto jackpot cap will reduce from €19.06 million to €16 million. The capping mechanism will remain the same, with a Must Be Won rolldown triggering at the fifth draw at cap.   

Also, the Lotto Raffle element of the game will no longer be part of the game.   

The date for the introduction of all of the above game changes will be confirmed in the coming weeks.  

With the updates, the National Lottery expects there to be 28 millionaires created on average each year.  

 In 2025, for example, the total number of Lotto millionaires created was 15.  

The National Lottery's CEO Cian Murphy said in the statement: “These changes mark an exciting new chapter for our flagship game - Lotto.

"We’ve been listening to our players, and these enhancements have been designed with our players front of mind and with the goal of creating the best possible game experience.” 

The National Lottery also says it has made no changes to the price to play either Lotto or the Lotto Plus games.

Main images via Rolling News