Instant Wins Explained

This page explains how instant wins work here: how the winning numbers are chosen, what the reveal games do and do not do, and exactly how and when the money reaches you. The Terms and Conditions are the authoritative version of everything below.

What an instant win is

An instant win is a prize attached to a particular ticket number. If you are allocated that number, you win that prize there and then, rather than waiting for the closing date.

Instant wins sit alongside the main prize rather than replacing it. The end prize is still drawn in the normal way — shortly after the closing date, or at the point of sell-out where we have said the competition will be drawn on sell-out. The competition page lists the prizes on offer.

Where a prize is described in cash terms, for example "£100 Cash", it is paid as site credit of that amount into your Wallet. Site credit is worth the same in pounds as the amount stated, and it can be withdrawn as real money.

The winning numbers are set before sales start

The ticket numbers carrying instant win prizes are allocated before the competition opens for entries, and are drawn from numbers that have not been given to anybody. We do not choose which numbers carry a prize, and no entrant knows which ones do until they are revealed.

Two things follow from that:

• When you buy makes no difference to whether the prizes exist. They were all placed before the first ticket was sold, and they come out of the pool as people win them.
• No prize can be steered towards a particular person. The numbers are chosen at random from unallocated numbers, and because we do not know which numbers carry a prize before they are revealed, we cannot direct one to anybody.

Instant wins are available equally on the paid online route and on the free entry routes set out in the Terms. A free entry has the same chance of winning as a paid one. You need a free online account to enter by post, for the same reason a paid entrant needs one — it is how we allocate your ticket number and reach you if you win.

If you enter free by post and the best prizes have gone by the time your postcard reaches us, you are given site credit for an entry into the next competition offering instant wins of at least that value.

The reveal game is presentation only

Your number may be revealed through an on-screen game — a wheel, a scratchcard, a reveal grid or something similar.

The game shows you a result that has already been decided by the ticket number you hold. Nothing you do while playing changes it. There is no skill in it and no way to play it better or worse. Spinning slowly, tapping a different square, or leaving it and coming back later all give the same outcome, because the outcome was fixed before you arrived.

It is there because opening a prize is more enjoyable than reading one.

What happens to a prize you win

The prize is credited to your Wallet automatically, the moment the ticket is revealed. You do not have to claim it, email us, or wait for anyone to approve it.

You have one Wallet, holding one balance. From there you can:

• Spend it. Wallet credit is applied automatically at checkout, in full or in part, so it comes off what you pay by card.
• Withdraw it. Withdrawals are paid in pounds sterling by bank transfer to a UK bank account in your own name, minimum £10. We may ask you to verify your identity, age and address first, and may allow only one withdrawal request at a time.

A balance under £10 stays in your Wallet and can be spent on entries.

Gold Tickets

From time to time we run a promotion that increases the value of the instant win prize on particular ticket numbers. Those numbers are marked on the competition page with the multiplier that applies, and shown as a Gold Ticket. We call the promotion a Boost.

• It does not change which numbers win. The winning numbers were set before the competition opened, and a Boost does not touch them.
• It does not change your odds. Your chance of holding a winning number is the same with a Boost running as without one.
• It changes what a number pays if it wins. That is all it does.
• It applies only where the number was shown as Boosted when you obtained it. If the Boost had ended by then, the prize is paid at its ordinary value.

How a boosted win is paid

A boosted win reaches you in two parts, and they do not arrive together.

1. The ordinary prize. Paid into your Wallet automatically the moment you reveal the ticket, exactly like any other instant win.
2. The extra amount from the Boost. Added separately, by hand. We aim to add it within 24 hours of the win, and within 5 working days in any event.

We say that plainly because part of the money appears straight away and part of it does not. That is normal, not a mistake, and a delay does not affect your entitlement. If the extra amount has not arrived within 5 working days, contact us and we will put it right.

We may start, change or end a Boost at any time. Ending one never removes an amount already won under it. If a Boost is ever displayed wrongly, we honour it as it was shown to you when you got the ticket, unless the error was obvious and you could reasonably have been expected to notice it. Boosts are covered by paragraphs 50 to 55 of the Terms and Conditions.

Where to see wins

• Instant winners lists instant win prizes as they are won.
• Results lists recent end-of-competition winners, shown by first name and the initial of their surname with the winning ticket number. Where a draw was run through TrueNorth, the competition page also shows the draw details and a link to verify the result.

Competitions are open to UK residents aged 18 or over. To set a spending limit or take a break, see player protection.