Roll Down Lotteries and Why You Should Play Them

Rollover jackpots are an essential—and much beloved—part of many lottery games. It is a proven fact that when a lottery offers a jackpot that has been rolled over a number of times, there will be a surge in ticket sales as hopeful players try and cash in on the opportunity to win jackpot amounts that far surpass the normal levels.

However, there is another type of lottery rule that we should all be aware of—the roll down. This rule is much less widely known than the roll-up (or rollover) and yet could be just as important in some of your favourite games. In this article, we will look at some roll down lotteries and why you should play them. We will also give you a brief overview of what a roll down lottery is so that you can be as excited about this element as we are.

What Is a Roll Down Lottery?

A roll down lottery is simply a lottery that has a roll down rule attached to the way in which it operates. You may, however, then ask what a roll down rule is? Let us explain. A roll down rule works in the opposite way to a roll-up (or rollover) rule. This roll down rule comes into play when a jackpot has rolled over so many times that the jackpot has reached its limit or jackpot cap and is essentially frozen.

What happens next is that, instead of rolling over and adding more funds to the jackpot amount, the additional funds that would typically be rolled over into the jackpot amount are rolled down—to the lower prize tiers. This means that, while the jackpot stays frozen at its highest possible amount, the second, third, and possibly even lower prize tiers benefit from substantial boosts to the prizes offered as a standard.

This rule can lead to second-tier prizes acting as jackpot wins and even third-tier payouts being up to 70% higher than what they be would under a lottery’s normal circumstances.

Roll Down Lottery in Action

To illustrate exactly what a roll down lottery is, let’s look at a live example of a roll down lottery in action. This example is based on one of the most popular lotteries today, EuroMillions—which also happens to be one of the biggest roll down lotteries. Back in 2014, when the jackpot limit for EuroMillions was €190 million (it was recently increased to €200 million), the jackpot rolled over for consecutive draws before it became worth the full cap of €190 million on October 24^th. Because the jackpot had reached its limit, the roll down rule came into effect. This rule coming into play made the second tier prize worth an astounding €2.17 million.

You may think that this is not that spectacular. However, knowing that the second-tier prize just three days earlier for the October 21^st draw was only €333,090 shows what an increase this prize was worth. Due to the roll down rule, the second-tier prize increased by a ridiculous €1.84 million—in just three days! Unfortunately, the jackpot amount was won on October 24^th, putting an end to the roll down and resetting everything back to normal.

Do All Lotteries Support Roll Down Rules?

After realising what a roll down rule is and how it dramatically improves secondary and third prizes in a lottery, you may be asking why every lottery does not have this rule applied. The truth is that this rule is far less common than you might expect. The first (and most common) reason for this is that many lotteries today do not have jackpot caps or limits. These jackpots can roll over indefinitely without ever being frozen at a certain amount. Proof of this is the US Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots that have both reached over $1.5 billion.

The second reason that many lotteries do not have this rule is that they have never needed it. In instances like this, the jackpot has always been won before the jackpot has rolled over to its limit and there has never been any need for a roll down rule to be initiated. In addition to this, the roll down rule is often applied to a lottery only to be taken away shortly afterwards. Many lotteries toggle between supporting a roll down rule and not having one in place. Therefore, it is always important to check which lotteries have an actively supported roll down rule in play.

Which Lotteries Support a Roll Down Rule?

We are not going to lie; it is rather challenging to find which lotteries offer a roll down rule. This is not just because the rule is not often flouted about, but also because of the small number of lotteries that do actually host the rule. However, we have managed to find a shortlist of lotteries that do support roll down rules for you to check out below:

Conclusion

When considering which international lotteries are worth playing, the roll down rule is definitely something we recommend you look out for. Once the roll down rule comes into effect, these lotteries offer fantastic jackpots at the same odds of winning second and third-tier prizes. This gives a great excuse to make sure that you purchase tickets any time that you know that a roll down rule has come into play. When doing this, you may be one of the lucky people that takes full advantage of a roll down draw and walks away with a jackpot amount even though you didn’t match all the winning numbers. How fantastic would that be?