UK’s biggest lottery jackpot at stake in EuroMillions draw

The jackpot is an estimated £184 million, the largest ever up for grabs.

It eclipses the previous top UK prize of £170 million, won by an anonymous EuroMillions ticketholder in 2019.

There have been five UK EuroMillions jackpot winners so far this year, including the anonymous winners of £122 million in April and £111 million in June.

The biggest recent UK winners to go public were Frances and Patrick Connolly, from Northern Ireland, who scooped a £115 million prize in 2019.

No ticketholder won the £174 million EuroMillions jackpot on Friday, meaning the top prize rolled over into Tuesday’s draw.

The draw will take place at 7.45pm.

On its website EuroMillions, which is played in nine European countries, says the odds of picking five numbers and the two Lucky Stars is one in 139,838,160.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at The National Lottery, said any winner of the record jackpot would become “part of a national event”.

He said a prize of £184 million “can make a difference for generations and generations to come”.

With that sum under their belt, one UK winner could count themselves richer than the singer Adele, whose net worth is £130 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.

They could buy a house in each of the top 10 priciest streets in the UK, including in London’s Kensington Palace Gardens, where the average house price is nearly £30 million.

Mr Carter said he has seen “all sorts” of reactions in his 15 years dealing with lucky ticketholders.

“I’ve seen people be sick with excitement, I’ve seen people resign their job on the spot, I’ve seen people jumping up and down, I’ve known husbands who haven’t told wives and wives who haven’t told husbands, I’ve been to homes where there’s literally a party going on already,” he told the PA news agency.

The wealth adviser or one of his colleagues would be among the first people to speak to any winner, to provide them with financial and legal advice and put them in touch with previous winners.

“If you’ve won a large amount of money in the National Lottery, the best thing you can do is go and have a cup of tea with another winner, because they’re the people that will truly understand,” he said.

The EuroMillions jackpot has reached 220 million euros, at which point it is capped and cannot roll over again.

The jackpot stays at that level for a further four draws if no-one claims the winnings.

It must be won in the fifth draw, and if no ticket matches all the numbers it is shared among all those ticketholders who are one number short. That could result in many new multimillionaires.

Mr Carter said his job restricts him from playing the lottery himself and he will “never know how it feels” to win big.

If he did strike it lucky, he said he would spend his winnings on making sure his family were well looked after and travel around the world to watch his favourite sports.