Independent site. CasinoCalcs is not affiliated with or endorsed by any lottery operator, including the National Lottery, Allwyn and Ireland’s National Lottery. Game names are used only to describe the rules the maths is based on.
- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
A lotto system calculator shows what a system entry really is: every line you can make from your numbers, bought at once. A system 8 in a 6-number game holds 28 lines, so at £2 a line it costs £56 a draw. If four of the winning numbers are among your 8, six of those lines match 4, sixteen match 3 and six match 2. The free CasinoCalcs calculator above works it out for any system size and game format.
Lotto systems table for 6-number games
| System | Lines | Cost at £2 | Jackpot chance, 6 from 49 | 6 from 59 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 7 | £14 | 1 in 1,997,688 | 1 in 6,436,782 |
| 8 | 28 | £56 | 1 in 499,422 | 1 in 1,609,196 |
| 9 | 84 | £168 | 1 in 166,474 | 1 in 536,399 |
| 10 | 210 | £420 | 1 in 66,590 | 1 in 214,559 |
| 11 | 462 | £924 | 1 in 30,268 | 1 in 97,527 |
| 12 | 924 | £1,848 | 1 in 15,134 | 1 in 48,764 |
Each step up multiplies the lines and the price together, so the chance per pound never improves. A system 12 has 924 times the jackpot chance of one line because it is 924 lines. The odds column is per round; a game that plays two rounds a draw doubles it.
Why systems pay out in clusters
When a system hits, it hits several lines at once. Say all six winning numbers are among your system 8. One line has all six. Twelve lines have five, since you can swap any one of the six for either of your two spare numbers, and fifteen have four. So a jackpot on a system comes with a stack of second-tier prizes on top. That’s the appeal, and it’s real, but the price of getting there is the same as buying those 28 lines by hand.
Some lotteries sell system entries as a single ticket; where they don’t, you can play every line yourself and the maths is identical. Syndicates often use systems because the cost gets shared: the lottery syndicate calculator splits it fairly. For a cheaper spread of numbers with smaller guarantees, try the lottery wheel generator, and for the raw counting, the combination calculator. Keno players can do the same sums on the keno system calculator.
Bigger systems cost a lot per draw. Set a monthly limit. BeGambleAware.org can help if lottery spending is creeping up.