Lotto 6-49 - Western Canada Lotto Corp

Lotto customers have won $50 million prizes and more several times.

Where to Buy Lottery Tickets

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General History

Lotto 6/49 is run by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation which is a non-profit organisation. Its members include the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut participate as associate members. When Lotto 6/49 was launched in June 1982, it was the first nationwide Canadian lottery game to allow players to choose their own numbers.

Lotto 6/49 draws are held every Wednesday and Saturday. In addition to the six main winning numbers that are drawn, a bonus number is drawn. You don't need the bonus number to win the jackpot as this requires that you match all six main numbers but it gives you another chance to win a prize.

Each play costs $2. The odds of winning the Lotto 6/49 first division jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816 and the odds of winning a prize overall are 1 in 32.3. Once the jackpot is more than $30 million, the first division prize pool is reduced to 40% and these funds are added to divisions 2, 3 and 4.

Lottery Schedule

Drawings for this lotto are held on Wednesday, Saturday.

How to Play

On your Lotto 6/49 playslip, select six numbers from a field of 1 to 49. You may add up to six Extra numbers by marking 'Yes' under each board that you play. The maximum number of lines per ticket varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. You can play in up to 25 consecutive draws also by marking this in advance on your playslip. There is also the option for asking for a Quick Pick where the terminal will randomly choose your numbers for you. For $2 you receive one-six number selection.

Lottery age Limit

Canadians over age 18 are allowed to participate in the BC Lotto draws.

Participating Countries

The following countries participate in Lotto 6-49 - Western Canada Lotto Corp: Canada.

Prize Structure

There are six prize divisions:

1. Matching all 6 out of 6 numbers wins the jackpot
2. Matching 5 out of 6 numbers wins a share of 5.75% of prize pool funds
3. Matching 5 out of 6 numbers plus the bonus wins a share of 4.75% of prize pool funds
4. Matching 4 out of 6 numbers wins a share of 9% of prize pool funds
5. Matching 3 out of 6 numbers wins $10
6. Matching 2 out of numbers plus the bonus wins $5.

Grand Prize

C$101,166 Canadian Dollar.

Jackpots

On Wednesdays and Saturdays you can add Extra for a chance to win that game's $250,000 top prize or $100,000 for second prize.

Notable Wins

The largest ever Lotto 6/49 Jackpot was won by a group of 17 oil and gas workers from Alberta who won $54.3 million in October 2005. This jackpot created a ticket buying frezny in Canada and it is thought that 2 out of every 3 adult Canadians purchased a ticket in the lead up to the draw.

Plus, there have been three other winning tickets which have won a jackpot of $50 million or more.

Distribution of Revenue

52% of ticket sales is returned to players in the form of prizes. Lottery retail commissions are approximately 6.5% of sales, operating expenses are approximately 6.9% and ticket printing and accounting are an additional 1.3%. The remaining 33.3% is revenue returned to the government members of the Western Canada Lottery Corporation and each provincial and territorial government establishes its own priorities for disbursement of Lottery funds.