The National Lottery has revealed the winning numbers for Saturday’s Lotto and Thunderball draws, with a £3.8m jackpot on the line in Lotto and a £500,000 top prize in Thunderball. The Lotto numbers were 4, 17, 18, 20, 23 and 56, while Thunderball came out as 5, 20, 24, 28 and 39.
Players were checking the live National Lottery Results on Saturday night because the draw decided who, if anyone, would walk away with the biggest prizes. Lotto was drawn at 8pm, and Thunderball followed shortly after, giving ticket holders a brief wait before the numbers were made public.
The draw lands in a game with a long history. The UK National Lottery held its first draw on November 19, 1994, and since then it has handed out prizes ranging from modest wins to huge life-changing sums. In April 2016, a single anonymous ticket-holder won the biggest ever Lotto prize, taking home £35 million.
The prize structure helps explain why the results draw such attention. Around half of ticket sales goes back into prizes, while 28% supports good causes, 12% goes to government duty, 5% goes to retailers and 5% to the operator. That split means each draw is part game, part public money machine, and it is why millions follow the numbers as soon as they are released.
There is also a more immediate reason the numbers matter to some players. Last month, retired Port Talbot Tata Steel workers won £1m after playing EuroMillions through the National Lottery app for the draw on Friday, February 27, matching the millionaire maker code. Their win was a reminder that a ticket bought on a routine night can still turn into a major payout.
What remains unresolved from Saturday night is whether any ticket matched the Lotto jackpot or Thunderball top prize. The numbers are out, but the headline win has not been stated, leaving players to check their tickets against the draw and see whether this was a night for a smaller payout or a much bigger one.
