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What are the Chances of Winning the Lottery in Canada?

Winning the lottery oftentimes seems to be THE grand ideal of making riches. Not just for the sake of it, many especially younger people quote the wish of making lottery winnings. In order to basically retire from any hardships of employment life, buying a sports car and a luxurious mansion and living the life. This is obviously connected to the massive amounts of real money which lottery games can accumulate. It is more a rule than an exception that specific lottery game versions such as (the) Mega Millions jackpot can hold multiple hundreds of million Dollars.

The person having the luck to be the winner in those cases establishes desires for other lottery players. “I just need one ticket to win the lottery next time, right?”. But what are the actual odds of winning the lottery after all?

Odds of Winning the Lottery in Canada

Since playing the lottery is based on sheer luck and not skill on the contrary like with a game of Blackjack, for example, the game is to be considered gambling at its finest. People spend much hope on increasing the odds by following certain “tactics”:

• buying more tickets for one single lottery draw
• using “lucky” lottery numbers based on birthdays, marriage dates, and so on
• people play the same lottery numbers again and again
• subscribing to lottery tickets and getting them early on for a draw

But as much as we dislike to say it: a better chance of achieving the winning numbers cannot be taken for granted despite playing lottery games in this very fashion. The probability for this to happen is rooted in the special circumstances of a lottery game.

The plain formula says that the odds of winning the lottery build upon both the necessary requirement for matching numbers and also the overall size of the number pool. Let us take Lotto 6/49 as an example here: prizes are obtained by matching six numbers out of a given pool of 49 numbers. The odds of having the Lotto 6/49 jackpot-winning ticket are accordingly 1 in 13,983,816. Quite the number, right?

What are the Chances of Winning the Lottery vs. Getting struck by Lightning?

A point at hand which is of course always likely to be mentioned is the probability of randomly getting struck by lightning in comparison with making large sum lottery winnings. Easy enough to say that there are factually better odds of lightning tragically hitting you (1 in 1,200,000) than being the main winner of Lotto 6/49. Even the odds of a shark attack are higher.

Generally, it goes that the more numbers that need to be matched and the bigger the number pool is, the less likely it will become to win the main prize. Major lotteries such as US Powerball face odds of 1 in 292,201,338 in terms of winning the jackpot. Many lotteries in Canada do indeed show better odds nevertheless:

• Lotto Max: 1 in 33,294,800. The  jackpot with Lotto Max can reach up to $70 million. A lottery ticket needs to match 7 out of 7 numbers to win the jackpot. All in all, there are 50 numbers in the pool.
• Encore: 1 in 10,000,000. The add-on to Lotto Max offers a $1 million jackpot each. The numbers in the pool count to 9 and you need to match 7/7 from right to left.
• Ontario 49: 1 in 13,983,816. The jackpot is set to $2 million and a ticket number needs to match six out of six numbers in order to win the prize. 49 numbers are part of the pool.
• Lottario: 1 in 4,072,530. The jackpot starts at $250,000 and increases until it is won. 6 out of 6 numbers need to be matched among the 45 available numbers in the pool.

How to win the Lottery

After all, it becomes clear that something like US Mega Millions with odds of 1 in 302,575,350, has way worse odds than any of the aforementioned Canadian lottery games. Then again, you should consider that a winner  collected $1.537 billion on a single (!) ticket which is definitely unheard of in the world of winning lottery tickets. But how can you make it to the jackpot prizes for real?

First of all, we need to repeat the circumstance that pretty much the only way to win the lottery is a lucky day. You will not be able to start  counting cards for instance to optimize your blackjack strategy. While this is something benefitting your endeavour to turn the odds towards your favour, a lottery ticket does not work like that. It does depend on the variable of lottery retailers getting this or that amount of tickets sold. The odds do not scale with the volume of people participating.

Nowadays, many lotteries use a Random Number Generator (RNG), so you cannot just go and bribe someone to manipulate the lottery furthermore. This sarcastic notion aside, the chances of winning are solely referring to the overall number of possible outcomes/combinations. Whether you lose or win is therefore not touched by anything related to skill.

What are the Chances of Winning the Lottery twice?

An urban legend could say that the only person to win the lottery once will not do so again. That is clearly not true nevertheless. As  winner history shows, some winners even managed to win money within just a short amount of time. The probability of making winnings in lotteries remains the same. Meaning that no matter someone winning the big prize – just the next ticket comes with the exact same chances yet again.

The lottery is worth playing totally independent from any kind of prior win. Because in the end, the odds of winning are not increased or decreased by winning a jackpot. Even if you had a lose-game before, you would still be able to win money under the very same parameters.

Signs you’re going to Win the Lottery – Truth or Dare?

Maybe you have heard of the book Learn How To Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery by Richard Lustig. The man who died in 2018 managed to win a couple of state-sponsored lottery games surmounting the value of $1 million over the course of approximately 20 years. His book even made it to  position 3 on Amazon’s self-help literature compilation. Lustig’s recommendations sparked quite a lot of attention accordingly, while a financial advisor  strongly condemned any accounts of that advice being reliable.

Let us take a closer look at some of the  tips and tricks recommended by Lustig (more than apparently a sponsored article):

• Pay for more tickets to turn the odds in your favor. The only thing you would achieve by that is to mildly influence the chances. If you buy 10 tickets for one specific draw of Lotto Max, you would face odds of 10 to 33,294,800. Purchasing tickets every week or even every day  does not turn the tides in your favor, therefore. What it does on the other hand, is that your cost for playing the lottery raises sharply. While 1 Lotto Max ticket is valued at a price of $5, you’d have to pay $50 for 10 tickets.
• Play among a syndicate of lottery players. The odds do not staggeringly twist even when playing within a group of lottery gamblers. You can certainly reduce the cost of purchasing tickets but then again winnings would need to be shared among the group members.
• Skip Quick Play or randomized ticket numbers and create your own lucky numbers. The odds of winning are not reversed if you choose your own set of numbers. Moreover, computer-generated numbers  tend to be more helpful in light of the possibility of duplicate numbers receding. This, in turn, would mean that the money has to be split if someone happens to have the same birthday in mind for example.

Do you pay Taxes on Lottery Millions?

A nice difference between the USA and Canada is that Canadians profit from the lottery being considered as windfalls. This brings with it that a lottery jackpot – no matter if state-sponsored or from a  charitable organization – is tax-free. Lotto Max or Lottario or something else is not subject to taxes. In the USA on the other hand, 25% taxes are the minimum bottom line for winning money above the value of $5,000.

Likewise, the lump sum option does still stand out when compared to annuities. If you choose the lump sum payment on a monthly basis, you can still be taxed for the interest portion of those annuities. Also, you will not be able to spend your millions on what you have in mind right away. Of course, keeping in mind that prizes should not be invested in an easy-going manner.

The Verdict

As this article has shown, there is no real way of increasing or decreasing the odds of winning the lottery. In this regard, the well-known Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario for instance. This ensures that the odds of winning cannot be changed or externally respectively internally manipulated by OLG employees or lotto retailers.

While some lottery games such as Mega Millions can seem like they have the worst odds in the field, they do instead offer spectacular jackpot values. It happened that winners became literally billionaires overnight. What we could assess is that:

• purchasing multiple tickets on a daily basis or per week does not change the world of odds
• the chances do not rely on the number of actual people who play
• people who won the jackpot have the same chance of winning with the very next game
• computer-generated numbers happen to be more unique and promising
• there are no taxes on the lump sum of a lottery jackpot in Canada
• this type of gambling is EXCLUSIVELY based on the number of possible combinations when it comes to the odds of winning!

Always make sure to play responsibly. Try our free demo versions at GuruCasinoBonus and play a fun lotto slot like  Lotto is my Motto by Oryx Gaming and more!

What are the Chances of Winning the Lottery FAQ

What are the chances of winning the lottery if you buy 100 tickets?

Believe it or not. The chances are indeed going a bit more to your benefit but not dramatically. For Mega Millions, it would be 10 in 302,575,350. You do not improve your overall potential by much since every ticket has the same chance of winning money.

What are the odds of winning Lotto Max?

The odds for winning the Lotto Max jackpot are 1 in 33,294,800.

What are the odds of winning Lotto 6/49?

With Lotto 6/49 you have odds of 1 in 13,983,816 for winning the jackpot.

Is there a trick to win the lottery?

It’s a bit like asking the National Weather Service for a sunny day in the upcoming 24 hours. There is not very much you can really do. Even people who won the lottery more than once did so by being merely more than lucky. Gambling in this form will at all times rely on luck and cannot be “broken” by strategies or tactics. People promising you differently are commonly con artists.

Which lottery game has the best odds of winning?

When solely looking at the lottery games by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, we can see that it is Lottario with odds of 1 in 4,072,530 which offers the best chances of winning the jackpot. The  highest jackpot value in its history was not exceeding $3,6 million though.