Saturday March 6 saw a £20 million Must Be Won Lotto draw. Players all over the UK were dreaming of becoming millionaires. However, it proved to be a strange night, especially for the writer of this article.
Let’s look at the draw first. This was a special Must Be Won event with that great £20 million top prize. If no ticket matched the six main numbers, then there would be a rolldown not a rollover. This meant that the lower winning tiers would see their winning amounts increased.
No tickets managed to match 16.17,29,47,52,56 and the Bonus Ball 15. Nor did any match five of the main balls and the Bonus Ball. Doing so would have guaranteed them becoming a millionaire. That meant the lower tier prizes were all enhanced. Those matching five of the main balls usually win £1,750 but on Saturday that rose to £9,068.
Now that’s a decent win but in a £20 million draw, should the most anyone wins be just £9.068? 89 tickets matched the four main balls – the best anyone did in that draw – but the total amount they received was only £807,052. That’s just over 4% of the £20 million.
Those who matched just three main balls saw their usual prize of £30 increased to a bumper £106. The total amount given to the 144.238 tickets that achieved that won just over £15 million. Even the nearly one and a half million tickets matching just two numbers won a Lucky Dip and an extra £5 as well, another £10 million in prizes.
Is the Lotto here though so that lots of players can win just over £100 or a few thousand pounds?
EuroMillions came close to a Must Be Won draw recently and their rules are totally different. If no one won the jackpot, then the whole amount would roll down to the next winning tier. There’s only ever been one such draw and on that occasion in October 2019, someone did match all the five main balls and two Lucky Stars to win £180 million.
It was a strange night on Saturday because you see I actually played the Lotto. I’ve been writing about lotteries for over six years and rarely play. I’ve written countless stories of winners who played on a whim or have strange ways of choosing their numbers.
Last week I wrote an article about an American player who won a $500,000 lottery prize. The numbers he used came from a fortune cookie. His shrimps and rice Chinese takeaway led to that massive win.
Well on Saturday, it was some sandwiches and boiled eggs that led to me winning a £106 prize. I’d finished my weekly shop, then saw the special deal on sandwiches and other items such as boiled eggs and decided to get some for supper. Knowing it was a Must Be Won Lotto draw (I’d written about it a few hours earlier), I decided on a whim to buy a Lucky Dip ticket and it matched three numbers to get the enhanced win of £106.
Now I didn’t choose the winning numbers but here is where it gets a bit spooky. My three winning numbers were 16,29 and 56. Earlier in the day I’d booked my first COVID-19 vaccine jab. The date of the appointment is the 16th. I qualified for the jab at this stage as I’m in the 56+ age range. As for 29, in lockdown I’ve been buying comics online, thousands of them. The first one I read on Saturday was a 1977 edition of Tiger, initially published on the 29th day of October.
Now that’s spooky but it’s amazing how many times these coincidences happen. Whether it’s birthdays, anniversaries or even the number on the back of your favourite baseball player, they can bring wins. Now what comics can I buy with my winnings lol.
