What are the odds of winning the $80 million lottery in Canada?
Published November 29, 2024 at 9:54 am
A ton of money is up for grabs in Friday’s Lotto Max draw.
RELATED: Did anyone win the $100 million lottery prize pool in Ontario?
An $80 million jackpot is being offered, plus an estimated 20 $1 million maxmillion prizes, marking $100 million in top prizing, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) said.
The $80 million jackpot was also offered in Tuesday’s draw. No one won it, though there were a few big-winning tickets sold in Ontario.
The OLG noted that nine out of the 10 Lotto Max jackpots won so far this year have been claimed in Ontario, marking $465 million in jackpot prizing for Ontario players.
Lotto Max is played throughout Canada.
So, what are the odds of winning the $80 million jackpot?
Not that great, to say the least.
The OLG put out a news release Friday morning about the jackpot saying “Ontarians are in ‘daydreaming’ overload” thinking about what they’d do if they won. And in reality, daydreaming is all most will get out of purchasing a ticket.
For every $5 play, you have an approximate 1 in 33,294,800 of matching seven out of seven numbers and winning the jackpot, the OLG says.
Percentage-wise, that’s around 0.000003 per cent.
In contrast, you have around a 99.999997 per cent chance of not winning the jackpot.
The same applies to individual maxmillion draws, as those also require a seven out of seven match.
But, of course, sometimes people do win those massive prizes, beating the seemingly impossible odds.
Here is a further look at the odds for the main Lotto Max draw, as provided by the OLG:
Match | Prize Payout | Odds of Winning* |
---|---|---|
7/7 | 87.25% of Pools Fund** | 1 in 33,294,800 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
6/7 + Bonus | 2.5% of Pools Fund** | 1 in 4,756,400 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
6/7 | 2.5% of Pools Fund** | 1 in 113,248 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
5/7 + Bonus | 1.5% of Pools Fund** | 1 in 37,749 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
5/7 | 3.5% of Pools Fund** | 1 in 1,841 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
4/7 + Bonus | 2.75% of Pools Fund** | 1 in 1,105 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
4/7 | $20 | 1 in 82.9 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
3/7 + Bonus | $20 | 1 in 82.9 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
3/7 | Free Play ($5 value – three sets of computer-generated numbers) | 1 in 8.5 *Per $5 play (approximate) |
The OLG said that your odds of winning any prize is one in seven.
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