Lotto Panic as Bonus Ball Refuses to Drop

A Lotto draw without a bonus ball is a bit like a BBQ without any food. That’s just what happened at the weekend as a “technical fault” caused a delay to the result of the  Lotto draw.

There was a £10.5 million jackpot in Saturday’s draw but those watching the Lotto draw were left on tenterhooks. All was going well and the six main balls had all been drawn, but then the bonus ball proved extremely reluctant to appear.

Panic

Panic set in because the bonus ball simply wouldn’t drop. It really was like a football match without a ball, everything was just incomplete. The draw had to be paused and the online stream for the National Lottery YouTube channel was unavailable for the rest of Saturday night.

The draw had to be completed and an alternative machine was eventually used to successfully select the elusive bonus ball.

Lotto operator Allwyn - who began running the National Lottery in 2024  -  said that the drawing of the bonus ball took place “under the supervision of an independent adjudicator.” Three years ago  a wrong number was selected in the Mega Millions draw.  Just what caused the problem is yet to be revealed.

It turns out that at this stage no ticket had been able to match 04-09-28-40-42-59 to win the £10.5 million Lotto jackpot. However, there were plenty of ticket holders who really needed to know what the bonus ball was going to be.

Desperate

Any players who had matched five of the main balls were desperate to see if they could also match the yet-to-appear bonus ball.  When it did finally make an appearance, it was number 55 that was selected. That delighted one ticket as it meant they won the second-tier prize of £1 million.

With the Lotto jackpot not being won on Saturday, Wednesday’s draw will have a £12.3 million top prize.

Meanwhile in the USA, the Mega Millions draw held on Friday ended in another rollover. Tomorrow’s draw sees the jackpot up to a massive $714 million.

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