The UK lotto is one of the biggest and most popular lotteries in the entire world. Unlike many lotteries in other countries, the UK Lotto prize is paid out as a lump sum, not drip-fed to the winner across 25 years or so. This makes it extremely attractive to players all over the world. As you can even buy tickets online, there has never been a better time to 'risk a quid'. But what exactly are the statistics behind the UK Lottery?

First off, it's a pick 6 from 49 lottery, so the odds of a 6 number jackpot are fairly standard at 1 in 13,983,816 for an individual ticket. The most popular numbers regularly picked are 23, 25, 38, 43, 44, 57. The least picked numbers are 13, 20, 21, 37, 39, 41. If you are into number pairs, you may be interested to know that the lotto's most common number pair are 38 and 46. Those of you who like to pick lottery numbers in threes (as do many people here at www.winthatlotto.com ) will be fascinated to find that the most common group f three lottery numbers picked is 10, 34 and 48.

Ever wondered where the ticket money for the UK National Lotto ends up? According to the lottery accounts, 45% of the ticket take goes to prizes of all sizes, 5% goes to a 'Top Up' bin, and 28% goes to the fabled 'Good Causes' (some of which have been discovered to be criminal scam fronts, unfortunately). of the remainder, 13% is given to the UK government as Lottery Duty, 5% is paid to the retailers who sell tickets as commission, Camelot is allowed to keep 3% to cover costs, and a further 1% as pure profit.

No doubt you are most interested in how the money is paid out! We certainly are at www.winthatlotto.com ! Essentially, you will win 10 for matching any 3 numbers. This is quite a large chunk of cash to be paid out, because the odds on that are about 1 in 57. Of the remaining money, 22% is paid to tickets that match 4 numbers, 10% is paid for matching 5 numbers, 16% is allocated to tickets that 5 numbers and the 'bonus ball', and a whopping 52% plus any rollover is paid to any tickets matching all six numbers.

The odds on these lower prizes are quite easy to work out, being 2.3 million to 1 to get 5 balls plus the bonus lotto ball, 55,550 to 1 to get 5 numbers right, 1,030 to 1 to hit 4 lottery balls correct, 57 to 1 for a 10 3 ticket win, 7.5 to 1 to get 2 numbers right, and 2.4 to 1 to get 1 or no numbers right. So there you have it. Good luck with your lotto picks!