Odds of winning the lottery in Canada get better when this happens

While the odds of winning the lottery are never great to say the least, your chances of winning one of the major prizes from Lotto 6/49 can actually vary from draw to draw.

The game has a classic jackpot with a fixed prize of $5 million and a gold ball draw that offers a guaranteed $1 million prize or a jackpot that starts at $10 million and could reach $68 million.

For the gold ball draw, it starts with 29 white balls and one gold ball.

If a white ball is drawn, the guaranteed $1 million prize is handed out and the gold ball jackpot grows.

If the gold ball is drawn, the jackpot is handed out.

Lotto 6/49 costs $3 per play, in which you get a selection of six numbers from one to 49 for the classic draw, as well as a separate 10-digit number for the gold ball draw.

The odds of winning the $5 million classic jackpot always stand at one in 13,983,816, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation says, with the prize going to the ticket(s) that match six randomly drawn numbers.

But when it comes to the gold ball draw or the guaranteed $1 million prize, the odds can vary.

As the OLG notes, “The odds of winning a prize in any gold ball draw are one out of the total number of gold ball draw numbers issued for that draw.”

It’s akin to a raffle, with a winning ticket selected for each draw, no matter what.

So the number of tickets purchased for that draw determines what your chances are of winning a prize from the gold ball draw.

“The odds for the gold ball draw and also the guaranteed $1 million draw are determined for each draw by the total number of selections issued across Canada,” OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti told INsauga.com.

“For example, if five million Lotto 6/49 plays are issued, there would be five million selections … which means the odds of any one selection being drawn would be one in five million.”

Less tickets purchased means better odds and more tickets purchased means worse odds.

Now that applies to the gold ball draw overall, meaning either the gold ball jackpot or the guaranteed $1 million prize.

Separately, as noted above, another draw takes place to determine which prize will be handed out, whether it is the jackpot or the $1 million prize.

So even if your ticket is selected for the winner of the gold ball draw, most times you are still more likely to take home the $1 million prize, unless there is one gold ball and one white ball left, in which it would be 50/50, or if there is just the gold ball left, in which case it would be guaranteed that you’d win the jackpot, which at that point would be $68 million.

“The odds for the holder(s) of the ticket bearing the winning gold ball draw number of winning the gold ball jackpot depends on the number of prize balls available for that gold ball jackpot draw,” the OLG says.

“For example, if there are 30 prize balls available for the draw, the odds of winning the gold ball jackpot are one in 30. If there are two prize balls available for the draw, the odds of winning the gold ball jackpot are one in two.”

When the jackpot is smaller, normally you have a better chance of winning a big prize

When the gold ball jackpot is smaller, although there are more white balls left (meaning more $1 million prizes as opposed to the jackpot), normally you have a better chance of winning a big prize, though it’s more likely to be the $1 million prize if your ticket is selected.

That’s because typically less tickets are purchased when the jackpot for a lottery game is smaller.

“That is the trend – not just for 6/49 but for all big money lottery games in Canada and the U.S.,” Bitonti said.

For instance, in the Dec. 28 draw, the gold ball jackpot stood at $54 million and around 6,158,830 selections were made for that draw, Bitonti said. The gold ball prize was won by a ticket sold in western Canada.

In the Feb. 19 draw, when the gold ball jackpot stood at $16 million, around 3,734,553 selections were made. For that draw, the gold ball wasn’t won (a white ball was selected) and a ticket sold in Oshawa won the guaranteed $1 million prize.

So while the odds are never great, in some draws you may have a better chance than others.

Lotto 6/49 is played throughout Canada on Wednesdays and Saturdays.