EuroMillions vs Irish Lotto
With one play, the EuroMillions jackpot has a chance of 1 in 139,838,160 and the Irish Lotto jackpot 1 in 8,145,060. EuroMillions is 17 times harder: it takes 17 plays for the chance of one Irish Lotto play.
How this works
- What it does
- This page puts two lotteries side by side: the chance of the top prize and of any prize, the price, what a play pays back on average, and what a year of playing costs.
- How to use it
- Nothing to type. Read across each row; the game names lead to the full odds page of each.
- How to read the result
- A harder jackpot is not always the worse deal and an easier one is not a good one: look at the chance for the same money and at the payback. Both lose on average.
Side by side
| Item | EuroMillions | Irish Lotto |
|---|---|---|
| Numbers | 5 of 50 + 2 of 12 | 6 of 45 |
| Price of a play | €2.50 | €2 |
| Draws a week | 2 | 3 |
| Top prize, with one play | 1 in 139,838,160 | 1 in 8,145,060 |
| Top prize, per €1 | 1 in 349,595,400 | 1 in 16,290,120 |
| Any prize | 1 in 12.97 | 1 in 25.40 |
| Wait for the top prize, one play every draw | 1.3 million years | 52,000 years |
| A play pays back on average | €0.582 (23%) | €0.567 (28%) |
| Jackpot at which a play pays back its price | €305 million | €14 million |
| A year of one play every draw | €261 | €313 |
The payback is at the smallest jackpot of €17 million in EuroMillions and the smallest jackpot of €2 million in Irish Lotto, before tax. A larger jackpot raises it; each game's "is it worth it?" page shows it for any amount you type. A dash means a game with no jackpot.
What it means
For the same money, Irish Lotto gives 21.5 times the chance of the top prize. The price of a play counts as much as its odds.
In neither game does a play pay back its price on average, unless the jackpot reaches the amount in the table, and even then a shared jackpot pulls it back down. The likeliest result, in every draw of both, is that you win nothing.
Checked against the official figures
Every figure is the one on each game's odds page, worked out from the official rules and checked against the operator's figures. The sources, and the date they were read, are listed there.