Editor-In-Chief with 20 years experience covering the betting angles to breaking news stories. Daily slots player, Portsmouth fan and League Snooker Player
What would you do if you won the lottery? That’s the question millions of Brits ask their partners and friends all year around, with dreams of hitting it big at online casinos or lottery terminals.
In 2024, the National Lottery created 383 millionaires. The biggest win in the UK that year was £177 million on the EuroMillions in November, but this wasn’t the largest prize ever won.
🎉 Jackpot Dreams: What Would YOU Do? 💰✨
Back in July 2022, an anonymous ticket holder scooped the record £195 million EuroMillions jackpot. It’s hard to imagine winning this amount of money in one go, but someone’s bank account was certainly a lot healthier as a result.
With this in mind, the team at OLBG decided to survey 1,500 Brits to find out what they would actually do with their winnings and if there were any disparities between regions.
Here’s what we found out!
What would Brits do after a big win?
When asked what they would do right away after a big win, 40% of Brits said they would buy a house and 20% decided a holiday would be the top priority. A further 13% said they would invest and 10% decided on saving for the future. Surprisingly, only 6% said they would buy a car and 4% would make a charitable donation.
As for who they would tell first if they won the lottery, 59% of Brits said that their spouse or partner would be the first to find out. Another 11% would tell their parents first, but 5% would tell their mum only, and 6% would contact their siblings right away!
Only 5% would tell their best friend, and 1% would let only their dad know first. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 0% said they would tell a stranger first, and 12% of Brits admitted that they wouldn’t tell anyone.
It’s interesting to note that people aged 18-24 are seven times more likely to tell their mum before telling their dad. Meanwhile, respondents aged 18-44 tend to favour giving money to charities that help people in poverty and the homeless (54%), whereas older generations aged 45 and above favour health and medical research (63%).
Younger generations also dread the attention (32%) and older generations fear becoming targets for scammers (43%).
When it comes to differences between genders, men (57%) are more inclined than women (48%) to give larger sums of money (£50,000+) to their family, friends or charities.
Women are also less likely to leave their jobs if they were to win the lottery – 36% of women said they would, compared to 46% of men. In addition, 55% of men think that winning a large sum through the EuroMillions or something similar would make them happier, whereas only 45% of women agree with this.
How would each region deal with their winnings?
When it comes to winning the jackpot or receiving a big payout from the EuroMillions, there were also clear differences by region. For instance, people living in Yorkshire and the Humber are least likely to quit their jobs if they win the lottery (28%), whereas 47% of people in both London and Wales said that they would.
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People from Wales are the least likely to share their money if they won £10 million (88%), whereas 97% of people in the South West said that they would.
As for supporting worthy causes, people from Scotland are most likely to donate to charity, with 63% saying they would donate to health and medical research and 50% choosing charities that help people facing poverty and homelessness.
How about planning for the future? Well, people in London are the most likely to invest some of their winnings (27%), whereas people in Scotland are the least likely (4%).
On average, Brits would give £66,209.34 to their family members if they won a £10 million jackpot, 41% would quit their jobs, and only 50% think that winning the jackpot would make them happier in the long term.
Brits’ spending priorities
Now let’s take a look at what Brits would decide to spend their winnings on if they were lucky enough to be a jackpot winner.
As mentioned, people in London and the Greater London area are more than six times more likely to invest than those in Scotland. However, only 8% of people in London said they would save for the future, compared to 13% of people in both the South West and the West Midlands saying that this would be a priority (7% in Scotland).
Large purchases for life improvement also differ according to region, with 49% of people in the South East saying they would buy a house and only 36% of respondents in London saying that this is how they would spend their jackpot money.
As for luxury items such as designer bags and watches, 0% of respondents in the East Midlands, the South East and Northern Ireland would spend their money this way, with the region being most likely (still only 4%) being the West Midlands.
How about going on a holiday? Whether it’s topping up your tan on a beach, exploring exotic cities or taking in the Alpine air, only 14% of people in the South West said this is how they would spend their money compared to 27% of people in Scotland.
The most charitable regions
Donating money is a great way to support worthy causes and make a real difference in the lives of countless people. But how likely are Brits to give some of their jackpot winnings to a charity?
The most charitable region is Northern Ireland, where 24% of respondents said they would give some of their winnings to charity. The least likely region to do so is the West Midlands, with only 6% of people saying they would.
When we look at the percentage of people within a region who would share their winnings with others (including family, friends and/or charity), the South West is the highest at 97% and Wales is the lowest at 88%.
However, people in Scotland would give the largest sum, with 50% saying they would give more than £100,000, which is exactly twice that of people in London (25%).
We also asked which types of charities people would donate to. One of the key findings here is that people in the North West are most likely to give to charities focusing on environmental issues (26%), and people in Yorkshire and the Humber are the least likely (15%).
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland (68%) is most likely to give to health and medical research, and the lowest percentage (53%) is in the North East. Only 43% of people in the West Midland would donate to poverty and homelessness charities, whereas 56% of people in the North East would.
As for education charities, 11% of people in the South West decided this would be where some of their winnings would go, with almost twice as many (21%) of people in Yorkshire and the Humber saying the same.
Does winning rhyme with lifestyle change?
You would think that winning £10 million on the EuroMillions would be enough to quit your job, but perhaps not? Our research found that people in Wales and London are the most likely to hand in their notice, with 47% in each region saying they would.
The least likely region was Yorkshire and the Humber, with only 28% of respondents saying that a lottery win would inspire them to live a life of leisure.
We then asked respondents if they thought winning the jackpot would make them happier in the long term. Both the East Midlands and London had the most people agreeing to this, with 58% of people in each region saying that it would. The regions that agreed to this the least were Northern Ireland (40%) and Scotland (38%).
Fears around winning
Though winning the EuroMillions or another type of jackpot sounds like a dream come true, there are certain fears that some people have when it comes to winning large sums of money.
For instance, 49% of people in Scotland said that they would feel overwhelmed by the unwanted attention, compared to 36% of respondents in the West Midlands.
Attracting scammers worries 48% of people in Yorkshire and the Humber, but in Wales and London only 33% state this as something they fear. Being at higher risk of theft is another concern, with 44% of people in Northern Ireland agreeing this is one of their fears – at the other end of the scale, only 27% of those in the South West said this would be the case.
Other fears include a big win causing damage to relationships with friends or family (31% in Scotland, the North East and Eastern England compared to 15% in Yorkshire and the Humber); making poor investment or spending choices (25% in London compared to 18% in Yorkshire and the Humber and 14% in the North East); life becoming more complicated (25% in the West Midlands compared to 12% in Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and the Humber, and Wales); and struggling to manage large sums of money (22% in Scotland compared to 10% in the East Midlands).
And there you have it, that’s what Brits would do if they won big from the lottery! Of course, everyone is going to react differently to winning such a large sum of money, but it’s safe to say that such an amount would be life-changing!
Still, you don’t have to play the lottery in order to win big, and there are plenty of other opportunities out there for you to check out. Why not head over to OLBG to learn more about the best places to test your luck and beat the odds?
1,500 UK adults were surveyed to find out what they would do if they won the lottery. The survey included questions about their spending priorities, plans for sharing their winnings and their fears about winning.
