Roll Down is the lottery term used to describe a jackpot fund that is distributed between players who have qualified for the next highest possible prize.

Ordinarily, if no jackpot winner is found in a lottery, the jackpot fund is assigned to the fund for the next draw – something referred to as a “rollover”. However, if the maximum number of rollovers has been reached, or if the lottery has been declared to have a “Guaranteed Jackpot Payout”, no such rollover is possible.

This means that if there are no jackpot winners to claim the jackpot fund, a roll down has to take place instead. In this scenario, second-tier prize winners effectively become jackpot-winners. If there are no second-tier prize winners then the jackpot fund rolls down to the next highest prize tier that does have winners.

The roll down concept can sound quite complicated when one is first introduced to it, so allow us to illustrate how it works in practice. Let us imagine that we are playing a lottery game which has four prize levels, as follows:

• Level 1 (Jackpot Level)
• Level 2
• Level 3
• Level 4

• If the jackpot fund is worth 20 million, any Level 1 winners would automatically receive that 20 million or share it with other jackpot winners.

• If there are no jackpot winners then the jackpot fund would be rolled down to Level 2 and shared equally between all Level 2 winners.

• If there are no Level 2 winners then the jackpot fund would be rolled down to Level 3 and shared equally between all Level 3 winners.

• If there are no Level 3 winners then the jackpot fund would be rolled down to Level 4 and shared equally between all Level 4 winners.

Obviously, the lower prize levels in most lottery games around the world are much easier to win than the higher levels, so the chances of a jackpot fund having to be rolled right down to the lowest level are extremely small. In most cases, winners can normally be found at the level below that of the jackpot, so jackpot funds tend to roll down just one level.