You can find out the odds for winning any lottery prize before you play
To win any type of prize on the lottery you need to have at least one ticket for the draw. Without a ticket, your odds of winning are a guaranteed zero. But when you buy a lottery ticket, what are your actual odds of winning a prize? What the odds of you winning a large prize? And are the odds of you actually wining the big jackpot?
It's easy to find the odds
You may think that this information is a well-guarded industry secret, but it is not. You can actually do some research by visiting your lottery operator’s website and check out the odds for yourself.
Before we look at lottery odds, let’s look at slot machine odds for a comparison. Within some jurisdictions, slot machine odds are capped at a maximum of 17 million to 1 for the top jackpot award. This tells us that it is extremely remote that anyone is going to hit the jackpot. The odds are simply too great against the player.
Canadian Lotteries
For the best example of lottery odds, let’s look at some of the lottery games run by one of the most successful lottery operators in North America, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation in Canada.
Lotto Max is the top lottery in the province and is available in every Canadian lottery jurisdiction. Jackpots start at $10 million and are capped at $70 million. You need to match all 7 drawn numbers from a total of 50 to win the jackpot. The odds of winning the jackpot are 33,294,800 to 1.
Lotto 649 is another cross-Canada lottery that the OLG participates in. Starting at $5 million and does not have a cap. Odds of winning the jackpot are 13,983,816 to 1. You will need to match all 6 numbers draw out of a total of 49 numbers.
The Daily Grand provides a prize of $1,000 a day for life, or a lump sum payment of $7 million. Odds of hitting the jackpot are 13,348,188 to one, which is better than some slot machines. You will need to match all 5 drawn numbers plus the 6th “Grand” number from a total of 49 regular numbers and 7 grand numbers.
The Lottario lottery is just for players in the Province of Ontario. The jackpot starts at $250,000 and increases with no cap. The odds of winning the jackpot on this lottery are 4,072,530 to 1, which is exceedingly better than the other lotteries. You need to match all 6 drawn numbers out of a total of 45. Another lottery strictly for Ontario is the Ontario 49. The jackpot is a fixed $2 million and odds to win it are 13,983,816 by matching all 6 numbers from a total of 49.
In looking at these odds we can see that winning millions of dollars on a lottery can sometimes be easier than winning the top award on a slot machine. But the odds are still very remote and it is possible you will never hit the lottery jackpot. Even though the odds to win are staggeringly low, the fact is people do win lottery jackpots and end being millionaires. And in reality, if anyone out there can win a lottery jackpot with those odds, then you can too.