Irish Lotto simulator: play every draw for years
We ran 10,000 players who each bought one Irish Lotto play in every draw for 20 years: 3,120 draws and €6,240 each. The typical result was -€5,484, and only 0.28% of them ended ahead. Choose your own habit below.
Your own habit
Choose 1 to 5 plays, 1 to 50 years and a jackpot of 0 or more. Each player plays at most 20,000 times in one run, so that it ends within seconds.
The simulation could not run in this browser. The results below are those of the default run.
The typical result: -€5,484.
- Plays per draw: 1
- Years: 20
- Draws: 3,120
- Each player spent: €6,240
0.28% of the players ended ahead, and 10% were ahead at some point along the way.
The exact average is -€4,472, and the 10,000 players here averaged -€3,310. The typical player does worse than the average, because a few large wins pull the average up.
Players who won the jackpot: 10 of 10,000.
-€5,820-€4,308
The 489 luckiest players ended further right, off the chart: a few large wins lie so far away that they would flatten every other bar.
| Of 10,000 players | Result |
|---|---|
| The luckiest | +€1,935,530 |
| 1 in 20 did better than | -€4,308 |
| 1 in 4 did better than | -€5,388 |
| The player in the middle | -€5,484 |
| 1 in 4 did worse than | -€5,568 |
| 1 in 20 did worse than | -€5,664 |
| The unluckiest | -€5,820 |
This run: trainyourodds. Link to this run: the same link always gives the same players.
Link copied: anyone who opens it sees the same run.
How the simulation works
Every player plays in every draw. For each play, one random number picks the outcome according to the exact chances on the odds page, so the 10,000 players follow the same table. The prizes are those of the "is it worth it?" page.
The random numbers come from a generator (xoshiro128**) that starts from a code, the "seed". The same seed always gives exactly the same players, which is why a link can show a run again. The button picks a new seed every time.
The exact average does not come from the simulation: it is what you spend times the average loss of a play. The average of the 10,000 players lands close to it, and the gap between them shows how much luck matters even across that many players.
What this leaves out
- Tax: every figure is before any tax on winnings.
- Time: amounts are not adjusted for inflation, and a prize paid in instalments counts at its full amount.
- A jackpot that changes: every winner here gets the amount you type, shared with other winners as on the "is it worth it?" page.
Sources
The chances are those of the odds page, checked the same way. Prizes and sales were read from these pages:
- How to play Lotto: prizes and odds, the National Lottery (Ireland), checked 7 November 2026
- Lotto 6/45 Rules, Issue 10 (September 2026), Premier Lotteries Ireland, checked 7 November 2026
- First draw of the new Lotto and the Monday draw, the National Lottery (Ireland), checked 7 November 2026
- Lotto results, the National Lottery (Ireland): winners of each tier, checked 7 November 2026
The Irish National Lottery is run by Premier Lotteries Ireland under licence from the Regulator of the National Lottery. TrainYourOdds is independent and not connected with any lottery operator.