Inside the Thrills of Austria's Lotto

Overview

The Austria Lotto is the premier lottery game in Austria and it utilizes a classic 6/45 lottery structure. It began in 1986 and has consistently grown and paid millions of euros in jackpots to players across the country. The Austria Lotto is known by its German name – Osterreichische Lotterien.

The very first draw was held just 3 months after the country formed an official lottery, back in September 1986. The name of this official lottery organization is the Austrian Lottery Toto Company. Soon after its founding, the ALTC began offering smaller lottery games in addition to Austria Lotto, including: Sport Toto, Class Lottery, Small Number Lottery and the Letter Lottery.

Nowadays, the Austrian Lottery Toto Company offers an impressive selection of 9 national lotteries and games. The flagship lottery game, the Austria Lotto, remains the favourite among Austrians. The Austria Lotto games offer a wide range of prizes through multiple categories and divisions. These have assisted this lottery game in gaining a solid reputation among players the world over. This lottery game has plenty of appeal among Austrians, thanks largely to big payouts of €7.5 million recorded in October 2009, €10 million in May 2008, and €10 million in October 2011.

How to Play and Win the Austria Lotto

The rules of the Austria Lotto are fairly easy to follow. A single drum is used to randomly select 6 numbers from a pool of numbers between 1 and 45. An additional number is drawn – known as the bonus number – from the same pool of numbers. The bonus number does not assist players in forming a winning jackpot combination; however the bonus number will assist players in hitting winning combinations in the secondary categories. These include the second, the fourth, the sixth and the eighth prizes in the Austria Lotto.

To record a win in the Austria Lotto, players are required to match all 6 of the numbers in the 1 to 45 range. It is important to point out that there are 9 categories of prizes as well as a bonus ball. This makes it much easier for players to hit winning combinations, even if they don't win the main prize. The jackpot starts off at €1.5 million and it continues to rollover until such time as a winner has been crowned. As a result of this rollover policy, it is not uncommon for the Austria Lotto jackpot to sit in the region of €5 million or more. Since the winnings are tax-free, players are able to collect their jackpot prize in a single payout for the full amount.