a look at North America's biggest lottery draws
In North America, both the United States and Canada run lotteries in their prospective states or provinces. As you can imagine, there are huge lotteries to be won in each country. And they have very large jackpots indeed. Let’s take a look at them.
A look at the draws
Canada has the Lotto Max. This Canada-wide lottery jackpot starts or resets at $10 million and can grow to a maximum capped amount of $70 million. At and after the jackpot reaches the $70 million, every $1 million in excess is then drawn as a separate $1 million prize. Below is the prize structure and chances of winning each prize. And to win the top award, all you have to do is match all seven main numbers.
| Match | Prize Payout | Odds of Winning |
|---|---|---|
| 7/7 | 87.25% of Pools Fund | 1 in 33,294,800 |
| 6/7 + Bonus | 2.5% of Pools Fund | 1 in 4,756,400 |
| 6/7 | 2.5% of Pools Fund | 1 in 113,248 |
| 5/7 + Bonus | 1.5% of Pools Fund | 1 in 37,749 |
| 5/7 | 3.5% of Pools Fund | 1 in 1,841 |
| 4/7 + Bonus | 2.75% of Pools Fund | 1 in 1,105 |
| 4/7 | $20 | 1 in 82.9 |
| 3/7 + Bonus | $20 | 1 in 82.9 |
| 3/7 | Free Play | 1 in 8.5 |
Although the odds of winning look quite formidable, remember that people have won all the prizes available at some point, so you could win one of these as well.
Now, for the United States, they have both the Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries. The Mega Millions lottery starts or resets at $20 million, and like the Lotto 649, it grows each time it is not won. The Mega Millions top jackpot can climb into the hundreds of millions of dollars and, on occasion, has even reached $1 billion.
| Mega Millions Matches | Prize | Odds of Winning |
|---|---|---|
| 5 + Mega Ball | Jackpot | 1 in 302,575,350 |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | 1 in 12,607,306 |
| 4 + Mega Ball | $10,000 | 1 in 931,001 |
| 4 | $500 | 1 in 38,792 |
| 3 + Mega Ball | $200 | 1 in 14,547 |
| 3 | $10 | 1 in 606 |
| 2 + Mega Ball | $10 | 1 in 693 |
| 1 + Mega Ball | $4 | 1 in 89 |
| 0 + Mega Ball | $2 | 1 in 37 |
The odds of winning any Mega Millions Lottery prize are 1 in 24. And as you can see, the odds of hitting the top award on this lottery are very small, but on the other hand, the United States has ten times the population of Canada so the jackpots are not only larger but harder to match.
Powerball itself starts or resets at $20 million and like Mega Millions has no top award limit.
| Powerball Matches | Prize | Odds of Winning |
|---|---|---|
| 5 + Powerball | Jackpot | 1 in 292,201,338 |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | 1 in 11,688,053.52 |
| 4 + Powerball | $50,000 | 1 in 913,129.18 |
| 4 | $100 | 1 in 36,525.17 |
| 3 + Powerball | $1 | 1 in 14,494.11 |
| 3 | $7 | 1 in 579.76 |
| 2 + Powerball | $7 | 1 in 701.33 |
| 1 + Powerball | $4 | 1 in 91.98 |
| 0 + Powerball | $2 | 1 in 38.32 |
Overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.87. If you look at the odds, Powerball is a bit easier to win a prize but still, like Mega Millions, the odds are very low for the player.
So Canada, the second largest country on the planet next to Russia, with it’s one tenth the population of the United States, has a capped major lottery in which a player can win up to $70 million dollars. In the States, players can win hundreds of millions of dollars, or even a billion dollars. Now who wouldn’t want to win these large amounts of money? Given the high jackpots and the huge amount of money spent on buying tickets, it seems like both Canadians and Americans want those huge chunks of cash and are willing to buy tickets for a chance at them.