National lottery jackpot up for grabs in Christmas eve draw

CALIFORNIA: A huge £15 million National Lottery Lotto jackpot is up for grabs this Christmas Eve after four consecutive rollovers.

Tonight’s Lotto draw will take place at 8 pm, with players needing to match all six numbers to win the top prize. Even matching just two numbers is enough to win a smaller prize, while matching five numbers pays out almost £2,000.

If no one matches all six numbers, a rolldown will be triggered, meaning the entire £15 million prize fund will be shared among players who win lower-tier prizes. A Lotto jackpot can only roll over five times before it must be won.

The jackpot has grown so large due to four rollovers, which are relatively rare. While rollovers occur in around a quarter to a third of draws, quadruple rollovers are far less common, although they have happened twice already in 2025, in July and August.

Players had until 7.30 pm to buy tickets for tonight’s draw. To enter, they needed to choose six numbers between 1 and 59, or opt for a Lucky Dip. Up to seven lines can be played on one slip, with a maximum of 10 slips per purchase.

A Thunderball draw will also take place tonight, 15 minutes after the Lotto draw, with a fixed top prize of £500,000. If more than one player matches the winning Thunderball numbers, each will receive the full prize.

The Christmas Eve draw comes at the end of another successful year for the National Lottery. In 2025, the Lottery created 365 millionaires – one for every day of the year – who shared a total of £702 million in winnings. Four EuroMillions winners alone claimed a combined £199 million.

Since the National Lottery launched in 1994, more than 7,700 millionaires have been created. The biggest prize of 2025 was won in January, when an anonymous ticket-holder scooped £83 million in the EuroMillions.

All eyes will now be on tonight’s draw, as one or more lucky players could become millionaires just in time for Christmas.