A new EuroMillions rule change introduced on Friday 6 March, 2009, means that the jackpot will be capped. Prior to the EuroMillions rule change, jackpots could, in theory, grow to larger amounts as long as the total number of rollovers didn’t exceed twelve. In practice, the biggest EuroMillions jackpot on record was worth €183 million, so the new EuroMillions rule change will still allow us to reach those dizzy heights and actually go a tad higher, it's still an impressive amount of money.
The good news about the new EuroMillions rule change is that it potentially benefits players who win non-jackpot prizes. Should the jackpot reach the upper limit of €185 million (which it did on 8th July 2011), excess funds over and above that amount are rolled down to the next prize tier that has winners. This means that players who match five numbers and just one of the two Lucky Star numbers in these circumstances will win more than they would have done otherwise.Should there be no winners at this prize level then the prize money above the cap will continue to roll down.
Should we now see another Jackpot Cap be reached then the new cap amount will be €190 million and the same rules apply as above. A third cap being reached would mean the limit to the jackpot amount would be €195 million and so on until any subsequent rule changes are made.
Jackpot pool caps are not uncommon, especially in lottery games like EuroMillions that allow jackpots to roll over repeatedly. The EuroMillions rule change could therefore be viewed as one that brings the game into line with several other major lottery games.
Although there will undoubtedly be some critics of the EuroMillions rule change who argue that it makes it virtually impossible for us to ever see a €200,000,000 jackpot, we think that €185,000,000 is more than enough for anyone. After all, even if you invested that sum and obtained an annual return of just 5%, you would make over €25,000 per day! If you can’t live quite happily on that kind of money, we’re doubtful that any lottery would be able to help you!
3rd August 2011