Wednesday’s lottery winner to get record-breaking £42 million

Lotto spokeswoman: 'A single winner would instantly become the biggest Lotto winner the nation has ever seen'

Wednesday's lottery winner could walk away with £42 million (Glyn Genin)

A lucky winner could walk away with £42 million this Wednesday as Britain’s biggest lottery jackpot ever climbs to a record high.

The winning numbers on Saturday were 58, 44, 17, 31, 21, 38 and the bonus number was 20, but nobody matched all the numbers, which could have won someone £39 million.

A spokeswoman for the National Lottery said: “The Lotto jackpot is poised to break records with 42.2 million waiting to be won on Wednesday.

“A single winner would instantly become the biggest Lotto winner the nation has ever seen.”

The current record held for the biggest lottery jackpot is £42,008,610, which was won in 1996 by three anonymous winners.

National Lottery introduced sweeping changes in October, increasing the number of balls from 49 to 59, and allowing players who match two numbers to win a Lucky Dip ticket for a future draw.

Lotto operator Camelot insisted the changes would increase the overall chance of winning any prize from one in 54 to one in 9.3.

However, the changes were met with pessimism from the public, as well as experts.

A statistician from Lancaster University Management School, Professor Ian Walker, said: “There are 14 million ways of picking six out of 49. But there are 45 million ways of picking six out of 59. So it’s about three times harder to hit the jackpot.”

Despite the overall scepticism, there have been four jackpot winners since the changes were rolled through, according to the Daily Mail.