Irish Lotto · 7 min read

Ireland is retiring two lottery numbers. It has done this before.

On Saturday 5 September, the numbers 46 and 47 stop existing in Irish Lotto. The last time Ireland changed the maths of its lottery, it was because a syndicate had just tried to buy the entire game.

A row of numbered lottery balls lined up against a teal background
Alejandro Garay
1 in 1,947,792 1988 6/36 1 in 3,262,623 1992 6/39 1 in 5,245,786 1994 6/42 1 in 8,145,060 2006 6/45 1 in 10,737,573 2015 6/47 1 in 8,145,060 Sep 2026 6/45 Chance of matching six, at each format change
Every Irish Lotto format since 1988, and what each did to the chance of matching six. Computed from each game's own matrix.

What is actually changing, and when

The National Lottery confirmed the date on its own site: tickets for the new game go on sale Thursday 3 September, and the first draw under the new format is Saturday 5 September.[1]

Four things move at once.

The ticket price does not change.

Better odds, smaller ceiling. That is the trade

Read those four together and the shape of the decision is clear. More draws and better odds mean more winners. A lower cap means the headline jackpot stops growing sooner.

The National Lottery has been open about the goal. It expects around 28 millionaires a year under the new format. In 2025 the game produced 15.[2]

So Ireland is deliberately trading the enormous rolling jackpot for more frequent, smaller wins. It is the opposite of the direction it took in 2015, when it added two balls and made the top prize harder to hit.

The last time Ireland moved the numbers

In May 1992, Irish Lotto was a 6 from 36 game. That is 1,947,792 possible combinations. At 50 pence a line, buying every single one cost about GBP 974,000.

Stefan Klincewicz, a Cork-born accountant, worked out that on one particular bank holiday weekend the numbers stopped being ridiculous. The jackpot had rolled to roughly GBP 1.7 million, and the Lottery had added a bonus prize for matching four numbers. Buy everything, and you would collect the jackpot plus a mountain of smaller prizes.

He assembled a syndicate. Reports of its size vary between 21 and 28 people, and the accounts genuinely disagree, so treat the exact figure as unsettled.[3] What is not disputed is what happened next.

Teams fanned out across Ireland filling in slips by hand. There was no other way to do it in 1992. The Lottery noticed, and started shutting down terminals mid-purchase. The syndicate got roughly GBP 820,000 of tickets down before the machines went dark, covering most of the game but not all of it.

They matched six. So did two other tickets. The jackpot split three ways.

Within months, Ireland moved the game to 6 from 39 and introduced the bonus ball. Buying out the lottery went from expensive to impossible.

Why that story matters in September

The 1992 change made the game harder. The 2026 change makes it easier. Both were the operator turning a dial, and that is the part worth holding on to.

A lottery is not a fixed feature of the universe. It is a set of numbers somebody chose, and can choose differently. Ireland has now done it five times since 1988: 36 balls, then 39, then 42, then 45, then 47, and now back to 45.

The chart at the top of this page is that whole history in one picture. The bar on the right is the September game, and it is the same height as the bar from 2006, because it is the same game returning.

The bit no other Australian site will tell you

From 5 September, Irish Lotto's Division 1 odds are identical to Saturday Lotto's. Not similar. Identical.

GameFormatTop prize odds
Irish Lotto, from 5 Sept 20266 from 451 in 8,145,060
Saturday Lotto6 from 451 in 8,145,060
Weekday Windfall6 from 451 in 8,145,060

Three of the ten games on this site will share one number. You can see all ten ranked on The Odds.

They are not the same game underneath, though, and it is worth knowing why. Irish Lotto draws one bonus ball. Saturday Lotto draws two supplementaries. That changes every division below the top, even though the top is the same. Irish Lotto also caps its jackpot and rolls it down; Saturday Lotto does not work that way.

Same chance of matching six. Different game.

What this does to the numbers on this site

Every frequency chart, hot and cold list and shape reading for Irish Lotto is counted from its last 90 real draws. On 5 September, two of those balls stop existing.

That matters more than it sounds. If you keep counting straight through the change, 46 and 47 slowly become the coldest numbers in the game, because they can never come up again. They would look ice cold and mean nothing at all, which is precisely the sort of false pattern this site exists to avoid.

We hit this once before with Oz Lotto, which added 46 and 47 in May 2022. Merge draws either side of that change and those two numbers look permanently unlucky. They are not. They simply did not exist for part of the window.

So the Irish window resets in September. Counts from the 47-ball game stay with the 47-ball game.

The straight version

This is a genuinely good change for anyone who plays Irish Lotto. Better odds in every tier, an extra draw a week, and no price rise. The cost is a smaller maximum jackpot, which only matters on the rare occasions the thing rolls to the cap.

None of it changes what happens on any given night. A 1 in 8.1 million shot is a 1 in 8.1 million shot, and the retired 46 and 47 were never unlucky, or lucky, or anything at all.

What it does change is the number this site prints next to Irish Lotto, and the point at which the frequency counts start again. Both of those happen on 5 September.

Correct as at 15 August 2026, before the change takes effect. Odds figures are computed from each game's published matrix. The National Lottery has confirmed the 5 September date, and details can change; always confirm on lottery.ie. Irish Lotto is sold in Australia by The Lottery Office as "Irish Lotto". We are not the operator and we do not sell entries. Lottery play is for adults 18+.

References

  1. The National Lottery (Ireland), press release confirming the first draw date and the format changes: lottery.ie ↩
  2. The National Lottery's stated expectation of 28 millionaires a year against 15 in 2025, as reported at the announcement on 16 July 2026. ↩
  3. Accounts of the 1992 syndicate differ on its size and exact spend. The Irish Times interviewed Stefan Klincewicz in June 2025 alongside Ross Whitaker's documentary "Beat the Lotto"; older secondary accounts give different figures. We report the range rather than pick one. ↩
  4. Odds for every format are computed directly from the matrix, not quoted: 6 from 45 is 8,145,060 combinations, 6 from 47 is 10,737,573. ↩

Frequently asked questions

When does Irish Lotto change to 45 balls?

The first draw under the new 6 from 45 format is Saturday 5 September 2026, with tickets on sale from Thursday 3 September. A third weekly draw is added on Mondays from 7 September.

What happens to the numbers 46 and 47?

They are retired from the game. They cannot be drawn again, so frequency counts that span the change will make them look permanently cold when they are simply gone.

Are the new Irish Lotto odds the same as Saturday Lotto?

The top prize odds are identical: both are 6 from 45, which is 1 in 8,145,060. The games differ below the top, because Irish Lotto draws one bonus ball and Saturday Lotto draws two supplementaries.