Lotto Database Blog

Did you know there are 2 ways of increasing your chances of winning the lottery?

There is no gimmick

It is strictly better odds under certain circumstances.

Method 1 - With LottoMAX

Lotto MAX starts out at $10 million and the jackpot goes up everytime someone does not win the main draw prize. Once this prize hits its first threshold of $50 million, then additional $1 million maximillion prizes start to show up.

The odds of winning the grand prize of LottoMAX are the same odds as winning one of the Maxmillion prizes.

But that is where your odds get better.

How?

Let us says there are 2 maximillion prizes and the normal jackpot.

Your odds of winning the main prize is roughly 1 in 33 million.

Your odds of winning either of the maximillion prizes would be 2 times roughly 1 in 33 million.

So in total, your odds of winning either of these 3 prizes would be 33 million divided by 3, so roughly in 1 in 11 million.

The more maximillion prizes there are, the better your chances get at winning one of those prizes.

Rather than having a 1 in 33 million chance at winning a grand prize, your chances increase by number of maxillion prizes plus 1.

Note: With LottoMAX, there is no guarantee that anyone will win the maximillion prizes.

However, since there are more prizes being drawn, you have a better chance of winning than if there were no Maximillions.

With 649 Super Draws

Every year prize money goes unclaimed.

Sometimes it could be little prizes, like a $20 dollar winner.

Rarely, there are major prizes unclaimed. For example, a $70 million LottoMAX purchased on June 28, 2022 was never claimed.

The lotteries commissions return unclaimed prizes back to the player community in the form of Bonus Prizes or Super Draws.

Lotto 649 periodically have Super Draws, where guaranteed prizes of between $25,000 to $100,000 are won.

When these draws occur, there are increased chances of winning because there are anywhere between 10 to 25 additional guaranteed winners on these Super Draw dates.

Some of the previous Super Draws included:

• "Every Saturday in July, there are 20 additional $10,000 prizes"
• "On September 2, 2023, there are 20 additional $50,000 guaranteed prizes"
• "On May 13, there are 25 additional $25,000 guaranteed prizes"

With these Super Draws, since there are guaranteed winners, the lucky winners are chosen from the pool of played $3.00 tickets, so the odds of winning changes from draw to draw.

Lottery ticket sales increase by approximately 20% during Super Draws.

However, the odds of winning are once again greater because there are more prizes being drawn.

Keep Your Eyes Open

Keep you eyes open. If you see there are Maximillions or there are Super Draws then you have a better chance of winning a major prize on those draw dates.

---

The Lotto 649 Gold Ball jackpot hit the maximum payout of $68 million on September 27, 2023.

What are the odds the Gold Ball draw would hit the maximum?

Well, let us figure it out together.

The Math

In total, there are 30 balls in the Gold ball draw.

There are 29 White Balls and 1 Gold Ball.

In order to have the maximum jackpot of $68 million, the gold ball would have to be the last one drawn.

Let us look at the odds of pulling 29 white balls in a row.

The first draw is pretty easy.

The odds of pulling a white ball is 29 out of 30, or 96.67%

The white ball drawn in now placed to the side.

Now the pool has dropped to 29 balls, ie 28 white balls and 1 gold ball.

For the second draw, the odds of pulling a white ball is 28 out of 29, or 96.55%

So for the first 2 draws to be white balls only, the odds would be 96.67% x 96.55% which would give us 93.33%

You see where I am going with this?

We would have to repeat this process for all 29 white balls.

To figure out the odds with all 29 numbers, we would do the following calculation.

Odds = 29/30 x 28/29 x 27/28 x 26/27 x 25/26 . . . 4/5 x 3/4 x 2/3 x 1/2

Those familiar with math, there is a lot of cancelling which occurs.

Odds = 29/30 x 28/29 x 27/28 x 26/27 x 25/26 . . . 4/5 x 3/4 x 2/3 x 1/2.

The Final Odds

Odds = 1/30

We are left with a simple solution of 1/30.

1 / 30 = 0.03333, which is equal to 3.33%

There is a 3.33% chance that all white balls will be drawn before the gold ball is drawn.

It takes time.

Lotto 649 draws are twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To have the white ball drawn 29 times in a row is not only a 3.33% chance but it also takes time.

Again some math. 29 draws / 2 draws per week = 14.5 weeks. So just over 100 days.

It already happened once, let us see how long it will take to happen again.

---

Gold Ball? What is it? Does it cost extra? How much can I win?

All very good questions. We will examine this most recent change to Lotto 649.

On September 14, 2022 Lotto 649 went through a bit of an overhaul and broke the 649 prizes into 2 categories, the Classic Draw and the Gold Draw.

Classic Draw

The Classic Draw selects 6 randomly generated numbers.

The jackpot to the Classic Draw is $5 million. This is fixed and doesn't change. If you are lucky enough to match the 6 numbers drawn, then you share the winnings of the jackpot of $5 million.

If no one wins then the following draw the jackpot will still be $5 million.

Gold Draw

Since the Classic Draw has a fixed jackpot, then the Gold Draw is the one which grows over time.

Prior to the Gold Draw, Lotto 649 had a guaranteed winner every draw of 1 million dollars. This winner was randomly chosen from all the players who played that draw.

There is still a guaranteed winner, but now that winner could win anywhere between $1 million to $68 million.

How?

The Gold Draw jackpot starts out at $10 Million.

There is a pool of 30 balls, 29 of them are colored white and one is colored gold.

Every draw when they chose the prize for the guaranteed winner, it is determined by drawing one of the 30 balls.

There are 2 possibilities every draw. Either a white ball is drawn or a gold ball is drawn.

If a white ball is drawn then 3 things happen:

1. The guaranteed winner wins $1 million.
2. The Gold ball prize is increased by $2 million.
3. The white ball is removed from the draw machine.

If the gold ball is drawn, 3 things happen as well:

1. The guaranteed winner wins the Gold Ball jackpot.
2. The jackpot is reset to $10 million.
3. All 30 balls are put back into play.

The cost of Lotto 649 did not change. It is still $3 for one draw selection. Each $3 play give you a chance to win the Classic jackpot and a chance to win the Gold Ball jackpot.

Questions and Answers

Q: Can there be more than one winner of the Classic jackpot?

A: Yes. Since multiple players can choose the same numbers, the Classic jackpot would be split amoung all the lucky winners

Q: Can there be more than one winner of the Gold Ball jackpot?

A: No, there is only one winner, and that would be the guaranteed winner chosen from all the players that particular draw.

Q: What happens if I buy more that one row on one ticket?

A: Every $3 spent is good for one chance at winning the Classic jackpot and 1 chance of winning the Gold Ball jackpot. Each Gold Ball ticket is comprised of the ticket number, followed by a sequence. For example, if a player bought 3 rows on the same ticket, then their Gold Ball ticket will end in "xxxxxxxx-03", so they would have 3 chances with their ticket, ie. xxxxxxxx-01, xxxxxxxx-02, xxxxxxxx-03.

Q: Can the Gold Ball jackpot ever reach the maximum of $68 million?

A: Yes. It would be very rare. However, on September 27, 2023 the Gold Ball jackpot grew to a maximum payout of $68 million for the first time. This jackpot was won by one lucky player from Toronto, Ontario.

Q: What are the odds of winning the guaranteed winner draw?

A: It varies draw to draw. Since the guaranteed winner is chosen from all the tickets played for a particular draw, this changes. Chances are the higher the Gold Ball prize, more players buy tickets, so the odds get slimmer.

---

One of the major national lotteries in Canada is Lotto MAX.

This lottery went through a bit of an overhaul in May, 2019 where they introduced an additional ball (number 50).

This changed the odds of winning.

As seen on our LottoMAX details page, the new odds of winning per $5.00 play is 1 in 33,294,800.

But what are actual odds of the lottery choosing your numbers?

There is a bit of math to figure out these odds. As described on our Odds of Winning the Lottery page, you can figure out the odds with this equation:

(50 x 49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44) / (7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1).

So, 503,417,376,000 / 5040

This results in 99,884,400

So the odds of your numbers being chosen are 1 in 99,884,400.

Different Odds?

But wait one second. The advertised odds are 1 in 33,294,800? What gives?

Technically, the advertised odds are correct. When you play Lotto Max, you are usually buying a $5.00 ticket. This gives you 3 selections of numbers.

So you have 3 chances to win for each $5 play, one for each line selection.

Doing the math again...

99,884,400 / 3 = 33,294,800.

So the math is correct...the odds are different depending on what you are truly looking for.

Regional Lottery Websites Odds

Canada has 5 regional websites to inform players about their lotteries.

These are:

1. British Columbia Lottery Corporation
2. Western Canada Lottery Corporation
3. Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
4. Loto-Quebec
5. Atlantic Lottery Corporation

Oddly, none of these official sites mention the true odds of winning Lotto MAX for one selection line.

Summary

The true odds of winning with your line selection are in 1 in 99,884,400. Math doesn't lie. To choose 7 numbers from the pool of 50 balls, the odds are definitely 1 in 99,884,400.

However, the odds of your ticket winning are 1 in 33,294,800, because each $5 ticket has 3 chances of winning.

Different odds, depending on how the question is worded.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please contact us with your opinions.

---