Third Ever Triple Rollover
Last Updated: Thursday 22nd January 2015, 09:27
A last minute ticket-buying frenzy in Saturday's triple rollover generated a jackpot of nearly £18 million. The lottery operators say that two ticket holders managed to match all six main numbers to win themselves £8,829,737 each.
This was only the third triple rollover jackpot in the history of the UK National Lottery, which was launched on November 1994. The first occurred on 29 May, 2004, and the three rollovers created a jackpot worth £22,158,516 which was eventually won by six ticket holders, giving them more than £3,693,086 each. The last triple rollover jackpot was just over a year ago, on 14 October, 2006. On that occasion the jackpot reached £18,711,206 and two tickets split the fund to give each one £9,355,603.
According to some mathematicians a triple-rollover should only come along once every 10 years so we should feel privileged that we've had three in just 13 years, especially since the introduction of a lucky dip facility which has the effect of spreading players choices more randomly.
The queues for tickets in a regular week can be fairly lengthy, so with an estimated £18 million up for grabs this Saturday players are advised to buy their tickets as soon as possible. Although the authorised retailers are expecting things to be particularly busy, this isn’t viewed as a bad thing by any means. Large jackpots that increase the sales of tickets are good for everyone, and retailers benefit from the surge in turnover just as players benefit from the potential of winning millions more than usual.
With only three triple rollovers having occurred over the last thirteen years, there is no telling when the next one will come along. What is for sure is that Saturday’s Lotto draw will be one to remember because if nobody matches all six numbers this Saturday the jackpot rolls down to the match-5 plus bonus tier.
