Irish national lottery or national lottery is one and the same thing. It was in the year 1986 when the Irish parliament ‘Oireachtas’ passed the national lottery act to enable the Irish public engage in the game of chances without loosing the fun and entertainment. The lottery was also started to raise funds for deserving causes like health, sport, culture, and promotion of the Irish language. It is the largest nationwide lottery in Ireland and since its inception has helped raise more than €2.85 billion for welfare projects apart from making hundreds of Irish men and women millionaires. The national lottery or Irish national lottery has more than 3800 retail outlets selling lottery tickets, scratch cards and other lottery products.
Initially the lottery was 6/36 in which the players had to choose six numbers from a range of 1 – 36. To win the jackpot a player had to have all the six numbers match the winning draw. Draws were held every Saturday night, however with the increasing popularity of the lottery two draws per week were introduced since May 1990. From the very beginning the Irish national lottery was vulnerable to scams and manipulations due to the significant easy odds of winning the jackpot. In the initial years the odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 1.9 million, however after a serious attempt to manipulate the lottery was made in 1992 by a businessman named Stefan Klincewicz the lottery underwent changes and the game was changed to 6/39 to further raise the odds this eventually was made to 6/42 and then later to 6/45. The odds were raised to successfully compete with the British National Lottery; increased odds meant more rollovers and hence bigger jackpots.
In the present form the players have to choose six numbers from 1 – 45 and match them with the winning draw. The jackpot has grown in size over the years and it is not uncommon to see jackpots in excess of €5 million or more.
Like all lotteries Irish national lottery is not immune to frauds and scams. There is an increasing incidence of fraud emails doing the rounds that congratulate internet users on winning the Irish national lottery and ask for personal and bank details. The governing authority of the Irish national lottery repeatedly warns players and internet users to be wary of such email frauds.
Remember you can only win a lottery by buying a ticket and playing the game. There is no way you will win just because you have an email address.