Lotto guide
Lotto Checker Ireland: How to Play and Check Your Ticket
Buying a line takes a minute; checking it properly takes a little longer. A step-by-step guide to the new six-from-45 Lotto, the EuroMillions ticket and the prize claim that follows.
By Conor FurlongChecked 18+
18+ only. Gambling can become a problem. Set a limit before you start. Help and support
The simplest lotto checker in Ireland is the ticket, the draw date and the official result side by side; the feed below carries the latest results for every National Lottery game. The Lotto itself is easy to play: six numbers from 1 to 45, EUR 2 a line, at least two lines, drawn on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
681134404326 Top prize: EUR 3,941,468 There was no winner of the Lotto jackpot. In total, over 53,000 players won prizes in the Lotto & Lotto Plus draws. 6101531324429 Top prize: EUR 1,000,000 There was no winner of the Lotto Plus 1 top prize. 9141527394324 Top prize: EUR 1,000,000 There was no winner of the Lotto Plus 2 top prize. 213032424836 Top prize: EUR 78,415,028 There was no winner of the EuroMillions jackpot. In total, over 34,000 players in Ireland won prizes in the EuroMillions and Plus games. 10111216182238 Top prize: EUR 1,000,000 There was no winner of the Daily Million top prize. 11172425303214 Top prize: EUR 500,000 There was no winner of the Daily Million Plus top prize.
How to play the Irish Lotto, step by step
- Choose six numbers from 1 to 45 for each line, or take a random selection where the retailer or website offers one.
- Buy at least two lines. A line is EUR 2, so the minimum entry is EUR 4.
- Decide on Lotto Plus. It adds EUR 1 per line and enters the same numbers in two extra draws, Plus 1 and Plus 2, each with a EUR 1 million top prize. Two lines with Plus cost EUR 6.
- Pick the draw or draws. Monday, Wednesday or Saturday, or several in a row.
- Buy before 7.45pm on a draw night, from a National Lottery retail agent or the official website. The draw follows at 7.55pm.
- Keep the ticket safe. A shop ticket is what you hand over to claim, so treat it like cash until the result is in.
Those are the rules as they stand after the changes of September 2026. Anything that mentions 47 balls, two draws a week or a Lotto raffle predates them.
Using a lotto checker in Ireland: the manual routine
Whichever checker you use, ours, the official one or the counter at the shop, the same four questions decide whether a ticket has won:
- Which draw? Read the date on the ticket. A ticket bought on a Sunday is for Monday's draw.
- Which games? A line with Plus is three draws: Lotto, Plus 1 and Plus 2.
- How many matches per line? Count each line on its own. Numbers matched across different lines do not add up.
- Is it still in date? Prizes expire 90 days after the draw.
For EuroMillions the routine changes slightly. Each line has five main numbers and two Lucky Stars, counted separately. If EuroMillions Plus was bought, the five main numbers are checked again against that Irish draw, where the Lucky Stars do not count. Then there is the raffle code that comes with lines bought in Ireland. The EuroMillions results page has the details and the feed for that game.
Scanners and apps
Plenty of people search for a lottery checker scanner. The official National Lottery website and any retail agent are the dependable routes; what the official app or website scanner does today is set out on the official site, and we do not describe features we have not been able to confirm. A third-party scanner app is only as good as the results it pulls in, so treat a "no win" from one as provisional and check by hand, or at the counter, before throwing a ticket away.
The odds, worked out
Six numbers from 45 can be combined in 8,145,060 ways, so a single Lotto line has about a 1 in 8.1 million chance of the jackpot. The old 47-ball game ran at about 1 in 10.7 million. EuroMillions, on its standard matrix, is 1 in 139,838,160 per line.
Lines are additive and nothing else is: ten different lines in one Lotto draw give ten chances in 8,145,060, which is still about 1 in 814,506. Picking birthdays or chasing "cold" balls does not move those figures. Every combination is equally likely in every draw.
Looking for a betting odds checker?
A fair share of searches for "odds checker" are about football or racing, not the lottery: Premier League prices, or the market for a Cheltenham Festival race. That is a different business. Bookmaker odds are prices set by a trader, and our fractional odds guide explains how to read them, with worked examples. For the March festival itself, see our Cheltenham page.
From winning ticket to payout
A small prize is paid by a National Lottery retail agent. Bigger amounts are claimed at a post office prize claim centre or at National Lottery headquarters; the official claim instructions set out which route applies to which amount. Scratch cards have their own deadline, printed on the back, counted from the last day the card could be sold. Whatever the size of the win, there is no tax to pay on it in Ireland, and large winners may ask to stay anonymous.
Who stands behind the ticket
The National Lottery is operated by Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC under a 20-year licence that began in 2014, and supervised by the Regulator of the National Lottery under the National Lottery Act 2013. Complaints about a game go through that system, not through the Gambling Regulatory Authority, whose remit covers bookmakers now and gaming once that licensing starts, expected in early 2027.
Playing within limits
You must be 18+ to buy any National Lottery product, and it is illegal to sell one to a minor. A ticket is a small, long-odds wager; budget for it as money spent. If it has become more than that, our responsible gambling page lists free help in Ireland.
Readers' questions
- How many numbers do you pick in the Irish Lotto?
- Six numbers from 1 to 45 on each line, with a minimum of two lines at EUR 2 each.
- What time do Lotto sales close?
- At 7.45pm on draw nights. The draw takes place at 7.55pm.
- Do I need to check Lotto Plus separately?
- Yes. If you bought Plus, each line must be checked against the main Lotto draw, Plus 1 and Plus 2.
- How likely is a Lotto jackpot win?
- About 1 in 8.1 million per line since the game moved to six numbers from 45.
- Is a scanner app enough to check a ticket?
- Use it as a first look only. Confirm against the official result or at a retail agent before discarding a ticket.