Trade up, together

1. Every prize is banked first

Before a draw goes on sale, its guaranteed prize is sitting in our Prize Trust account. Rung 1's £250 was put in by the founder. Every rung after that is guaranteed by the Ladder Fund.

2. You play for this rung

Tickets are £5 on the Ladder. A fifth of every paid ticket is added to the prize live, so the prize grows as tickets sell. You can watch it happen on the Prize Bar. The draw takes place on the closing date whether or not every ticket sells.

3. Two fifths trade up

£2 of every £5 ticket goes into the Ladder Fund, which becomes the next rung's guaranteed prize. That's how each rung is bigger than the last. It doesn't buy you an entry into the next rung: you choose whether to play each one.

4. You vote on the next prize, and play it for half price

Every ticket holder gets a vote on what the next rung's prize is. On Rung 1 that's £500 cash, a PlayStation 5 bundle or an iPad bundle. The winner becomes the next rung, and you get one half-price ticket on it for every ticket you bought. Buy 4, get 4 half price. Entering by post? Write your vote on the postcard and it counts just the same.

5. Side Trades keep things moving

Between rungs we run smaller Side Trades with better odds. Their prizes are bought before they open, and a slice of every ticket pushes the Ladder Fund along.

6. Draws you can check

We don't pick the winners: RANDOM.ORG, an independent true random number service, does. Each draw's one-use RANDOM.ORG ticket is published when sales open, the entry list when they close, and RANDOM.ORG's signed result after the draw, so you can check it on RANDOM.ORG yourself. See how.

7. Every penny accounted for

The Money Bar shows the split of every ticket, including our profit, and every finished draw gets a Draw Statement built from the real orders.

You can always enter for free by post, with exactly the same chance of winning.