Lotto 6/49 is one of three national lottery games in Canada. Launched on June 12, 1982, Lotto 6/49 was the first nationwide Canadian lottery game to allow players to choose their own numbers. Previous national games, such as the Olympic Lottery, Loto Canada and Superloto used pre-printed numbers on tickets. Lotto 6/49 led to the gradual phase-out of that type of lottery game in Canada.

Winning numbers are drawn by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation (ILC) every Wednesday and Saturday, executed with a random number generator.

Gameplay

As of the September 14, 2022 draw, the game consists of two components:

• The "Gold Ball Draw", formerly the "guaranteed prize draw",^[1] which is a raffle prize of at least $1 million that is awarded during each draw.^[2] Some drawings (promoted as a "Superdraw") offer multiple secondary raffle prizes.^[3]
• The "Classic Draw", in which six numbers are drawn from a set of 49. If a ticket matches all six numbers, a fixed prize of CA$5 million is won. A bonus number is also drawn, and if a player's ticket matches five numbers and the bonus number, the player wins the "second prize" which is usually between $100,000 and $500,000. Should more than one player win the top or second prize, it is split amongst them. Lesser prizes are also awarded if one matches at least two numbers.^[4][2] Until the September 14, 2022 draw, the top prize of this drawing was the main jackpot, which began at $5 million and increased each time it was not won.^[2]

Since the September 18, 2013 draw, a single entry costs $3.^[1] Each entry includes one line of six numbers for the Classic Draw, and one entry into the Gold Ball Draw, identified by a ticket number; this number can only be matched exactly, and does not offer secondary prizes for matching partial digits.^[4]

Beginning with the September 14, 2022 draw, the Gold Ball Draw replaces what is now the Classic Draw as the means in which the main jackpot is awarded. As before, a guaranteed prize of $1 million is awarded during each draw. However, at least once every 30 draws, a larger jackpot will be randomly awarded to the Gold Ball Draw winner instead.^[4][2] The jackpot begins at $10 million, with a 1 in 30 chance that it will be awarded. If the jackpot is not awarded, the jackpot will increase by $2 million on the next drawing, and the probability of a jackpot win will improve.^[2] These changes prevent the main jackpot from increasing without limit for an arbitrarily long time, or being split between multiple tickets; the largest jackpot that can be awarded under the new format is $68 million.^[4][5]

Until May 2019, Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max used a lottery machine to draw winning numbers. Since May 14, 2019, both games have switched to using a random number generator.^[6]

Largest jackpots

Before the June 2004 increase in ticket prices from $1 to $2, the largest Lotto 6/49 jackpot was $26.4 million, on September 2, 1995.^[7]

Prior to the September 2022 change in format, the largest Lotto 6/49 jackpot was drawn on October 17, 2015 for $64 million. The jackpot was won by one ticket purchased in Mississauga, Ontario.^[8] The second largest Lotto 6/49 jackpot was $63.4 million on the draw for April 13, 2013. Until 2019, these were the two largest jackpots in Canadian history; by comparison, while Lotto Max has had a main prize pool as high as $128 million, that lottery has set a cap on its main jackpot (which was most recently raised from $60 million to $70 million, with the first $65 million and $70 million jackpots first hit in 2019^[9] and 2020 respectively)^[10] with excess "main prize pool" money being assigned to supplemental "MaxMillions" prizes of $1 million each.

The third largest Lotto 6/49 jackpot was drawn on October 26, 2005. The single winning ticket, worth $54.3 million, was purchased in Camrose, Alberta by a group of 17 oil and gas plant workers.^[11] This was the largest Canadian lottery jackpot up to that time, and a significant increase from the previous record of $37.8 million on a Super 7 lottery draw in 2002—rapid sales created by lottery fever across the country pushed this 2005 Lotto 6/49 jackpot far beyond the originally estimated $40 million.^[7]

The Gold Ball Draw reached a 1 in 2 chance of awarding $66 million on the September 23, 2023 draw, the largest jackpot in Lotto 6/49 history.^[12] The jackpot was not awarded to the Gold Ball Draw winner, meaning that the maximum jackpot of $68 million was awarded for the first time during the September 27 draw. The winning ticket was sold in the Toronto area.^[5][13]

Organization

The Lotto 6/49 game is administered by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, an alliance of the five regional lottery corporations in Canada.

Each of these corporations operate a regional add-on games that, for an extra $1 each, can be added to a 6/49 ticket. This "spiel" game (named "Tag", "Encore" or "Extra" depending on the region), adds a 6- or 7-digit number to the ticket with a top prize of $100,000 if all six digits are matched or $250,000 to $1,000,000 depending on the region for a seven-number match ($1,000,000 in Ontario and Quebec; $250,000 in the Western Canada region of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories).

Alongside the main Lotto 6/49 drawing, the regional corporations also run local versions of the game; Atlantic 49, Quebec 49, Ontario 49, Western 6/49, and BC 49. These draws are held on the same night as each Lotto 6/49 drawing, but with fixed jackpots of $2,000,000 (or $1,000,000 on Atlantic 49). Most of these regional games still use the prize structure used by the national game prior to September 18, 2013; Ontario 49 and Western 6/49 do use the current prize structure, adding a free play for matching two numbers. Most regional variants of 6/49 use only the Classic Draw format, although Atlantic 49 also offers a raffle prize of $25,649 on each drawing.^[14]

Prizes and chance of winning

Overall odds of winning a prize are about 1 in 6.6, though the great majority of prizes consist of a free ticket for the next draw (a break-even scenario at best, not a win in the strictest sense).

From the 2004 price change until September 18, 2013, this table was distributed thus:

Before July 2010, if there was no winning ticket for a jackpot of $30 million or higher, the following prize structure was applied to all subsequent draws until the jackpot was won.^[15] This did not apply to bonus jackpots.

The probability of winning some prize in one play is 1 in 32.3.

From the game's inception until the 2004 price change, the prize pool consisted of 45% of sales, and was distributed thus:

The overall odds of winning were 1 in 54.