The luckiest places to play the lottery

Scotland is again home to winners of a life-changing National Lottery prize but the south-east remains the area with most of the game’s millionaires.

A total of 691 lottery millionaires live there, just ahead of the Midlands with 687, according to Camelot statistics on where winners lived when they made their claim.

The Midlands just edges out the south-east as the home of winners of £50,000 or more – at 5,705 ahead of the south-east’s 5,221.

Scotland is still home to the largest lottery win claimed in the UK – £161 million, won in 2011 by Colin and Chris Weir from Largs in North Ayrshire – and to 472 other winners of £1m or more.

Northern Ireland is at the bottom of the table, with 117 winners of £1m or more and 748 of £500,000 or more. London is home to 611 winners of £1m or more, followed by the north-west with 595.

The postcodes where players are most likely to win a major National Lottery prize, according to statistics most recently updated in May last year, are Cleveland (TS) and Romford (RM), closely followed by Warrington (WA), Liverpool (L), Newport (NP) and Newcastle (NE).

The postcodes are ranked by the number of major prizes of £50,000 or more won per head of adult population since the National Lottery began.

The TS postcode, which includes Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-tees, has more winners per head than anywhere else in the country.