The first draw took place on Friday February 13, 2004 in Paris. Initially only the UK, France and Spain were involved, but lotteries from Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Switzerland subsequently joined the draw on 8 October 2004.

More European countries are bound to follow suit especially as more and more countries elect to join and are accepted into the European Union.

As more countries join, these jackpot prize funds will undoubtedly continue to rise in value further.

Euromillions (or Euro Lottery as it is sometimes known as) draws are held each and every Friday evening and are held in Paris and televised on BBC1 in the UK, TF1 in France and TVE in Spain.

Who can play...

• Any person 18 or over, may differ in some countries. 16 in the UK
• Syndicated online lottery vendors exist for users who do not have access to retail outlets

How Much is it to Play Euro Millions

A standard EuroMillions ticket costs €2.00, £2.00 or CHF3.20 per line played, or €3.00 if one plays with the "Plus" option (available in the Republic of Ireland and Portugal).

The cost in the UK increased from £1.50 to £2.00 per line on 7 November 2009 as a result of the EUR/GBP exchange rate remaining closer to 1.0000 than to 0.7500, and the additional cost of UK tickets now funds the Millionaire Raffle Game where every week one UK player wins £1 million.

This is the standard price in all the countries mentioned above. Prizes, aside from the jackpot, are sized according to participation per country.

When playing in the UK EuroMillions now costs £2 per line of numbers and includes the Millionaire Raffle, which creates a new UK millionaire every week - guaranteed!

That's right; one UK EuroMillions player is guaranteed to win £1 million every week!

The way you play EuroMillions has not changed; every time you purchase a line of EuroMillions numbers, you'll be issued with a unique Millionaire Raffle selection which will be displayed on your ticket. This selection will be entered into the weekly Millionaire Raffle draw.

How To Play

To play this lottery, players need to pick 5 main numbers (from 1 to 50) and then 2 "lucky star" numbers (from 1 to 9).

The mechanics of the Euro Millions draw are like this……… 5 balls are drawn from 50 numbers (1 to 50) and then 2 balls (called "lucky stars") are drawn from 9 numbers (1 to 9).

First the 5 main numbers and then the 2 "lucky star" numbers are drawn randomly from 2 separate draw machines that contain the numbered balls.

Rollovers = Much Larger Jackpots or a Rolldown

An exciting part of the Euro Lotto is the "Rollover". On any given week, if the correct numbers are not matched to win the Jackpot, the prize fund "rolls over" to the following week.

This means that the jackpot prize increases in value week after week until the correct numbers are matched.

Laws instigated in February 2007 limit the number of "roll-overs" that can take place to eleven. Just think how huge the jackpot would be, though, if this top prize did "roll-over" eleven times…… which it has! If it is not won after this the jackpot is then Rolled Down and split between the next level of winning tickets down.

Euro Millions Up to €183 million!

The Euro-millions Jackpot reached €183 million after rolling over the maximum of eleven times on 17th November 2006.

The odds of winning the Euro Jackpot are 1 in 76 million but the nature of this is that the draw results in frequent rollovers and hence, much larger jackpots. For comparison, the UK National Lottery Jackpot odds are 1 in 14 million.

These rollovers mean much higher jackpot prizes and of course, greater lottery tickets sales resulting also in a much greater number of prizes available on lower tiers of the entire prize fund.

So…..the overall odds of winning a prize in the Euro Millions draw comes right down to a very respectable 1 in 24.

There are ways that you can increase your chances of winning lottery games such as the EuroMillions and UK National Lottery, however.

Euro Millions Odds