Online gamblers can now enjoy the magical world of the lottery, where dreams come true, and millionaires are made. Lotto is one of the earliest forms of legal gambling in Canada. The market currently accounts for more than $7 billion every year, even exceeding $10 billion at one time!
Although most people are familiar with this instant-win game of chance, there are a few finer details that many people miss. Stick around to find out all there is to know about Canada’s online lottery and international lotto games.
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Modern-day lotteries have been around for almost a century. They emerged in Puerto Rico in 1934 and spread to Canada by 1969 when the government amended the law to allow the sale of tickets.
There are many different types of lotteries, including online lottery games. One thing all lotteries have in common is that you need to buy a ticket to enter and hope that the numbers you choose are drawn. Furthermore, you don’t invest your time in the game; you simply buy a ticket to stand a chance of winning instantly.
There are plenty of things to keep in mind when choosing a casino to play at, including the payment methods available and whether or not it hosts the games you’re looking for. Similarly, there are certain things to consider when choosing a lottery to participate in. Here’s what to keep in mind when browsing lottery options online.
Different lotteries will be available, such as jackpot number draws or scratch card style games. You’ll find different variations within each of these, such as the Gold Ball draw, one of Canada’s largest jackpots.
You’ll come across instant win games or number draw lotteries among the lottery games at casinos. The best thing about instant win games is that you’ll know whether you’ve won the top prize or not almost instantly. With lotteries, you may be waiting a few days to find out the winning numbers. Depending on whether you want to play instant games or not, keep in mind the different types of lottery tickets out there.
As we’ve already mentioned, plenty of lottery jackpots are available online, with differing prize amounts. The Gold Ball jackpot (which is part of the 6/49 Lotto) goes up to $68 million, whereas the Lotto Max draw starts at $10 million and can go up to $70 million.
Some foreign lotteries have even larger jackpots than Canadian ones, and many of these are open to international players. For example, the US Powerball recently had a $2 billion jackpot. Therefore, opt for lotteries with the largest jackpots if you want the chance to win big.
Even if a lottery has a big jackpot, this doesn’t mean you have more chances of winning. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to check the winning odds before buying tickets. Lottery winning odds can vary, depending on selections issued and various other factors.
The Canadian lottery with the best odds of winning is the Lotto 6/49, which has a 1 in 14,000,000 chance of landing the jackpot.
Although Canadians can play local and international lotteries, not all are available. You need to make sure that you can legally play in the lottery from Canada to ensure that you can keep your winnings if you win.
Finally, if you buy a lottery ticket at an online casino, you need to ensure that the gambling platform is safe. Make sure you read the terms and conditions to ensure that you can keep anything you win. Look for a licensed gambling platform that follows industry regulations which will guarantee the site is legitimate and secure.
Although you can purchase lottery tickets from physical stores, nowadays, more people opt to play online. There are four main reasons why, which we’ve explored below.
Buying a ticket online is so easy. You don’t need to wait in line at an outlet to get a ticket. Instead, you can buy a ticket whenever you want, even at the last minute.
Canadians, like the rest of the world, use their phones for everything, including gambling and buying lottery tickets. Playing the lottery online means you can simply take out your phone, tap a few buttons, and buy a ticket. You’ll also be able to check whether you’ve won or not immediately after the draw.
You’ll also be able to find out more information about the available lottery games and the odds of winning if you play online. All of this information isn’t readily available when you buy a ticket in-store.
You’ll have more options available to you when you play the lottery online. Not only will you be able to play local Canadian lotteries from the Ontario province, but you’ll also be able to play in international lotteries.
Canada is home to three national lottery games: Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max, and the Daily Grand, with Lotto 6/49 being the first to surface in 1982. All three games have similar rules with slight variations. Players must choose numbers, or they can buy ‘Quick Pick’ tickets with randomly selected numbers chosen for them.
A Lotto 6/49 ticket includes two sets of numbers: a set for the main draw and a set for the second draw. The primary jackpot prize is guaranteed to be $1 million or more, with draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The Lotto Max jackpot starts at $10 million and goes up to $70 million. For just $5, you’ll be able to choose 3 sets of 7 numbers. You can choose numbers between 1 and 50.
Players are able to increase their chances of winning something by playing 8 and 9-number Combination Play tickets or selecting the Encore option for an extra $1. The Encore option allows you to win smaller prize amounts of up to $1 million.
This fairly new lottery gives players the chance to win $1,000 a day for life. The second prize is $25,000 a year for life. Each ticket costs $3, and you can select 5 numbers between 1-49 as well as a Grand number between 1-7. The draw takes place every Monday and Thursday night.
Below are some of the other most popular lotto games in Canada.
The most popular type of lottery in most countries is the 6-ball game. Balls with numbers are drawn, and these become the winning numbers. Players choose six balls and a bonus ball, and matching all 6 balls correctly wins the jackpot prize. Smaller prizes are paid out for matching fewer than six balls.
HotpPicks is a separate game that takes place on the same days as the Lotto. The winning numbers are the same as the winning lotto numbers, which is why the lottery results on confirmed on the same days.
Players can choose how many numbers they want to try to match. If you choose ‘Pick 1’, you have a better chance of winning, but your prize will be relatively small. If you choose ‘Pick 5’, you have a lower possibility of winning a lucrative prize.
In EuroMillions, players choose five numbers and two Lucky Star numbers. Matching all seven numbers wins you the jackpot. Matching five numbers and one Lucky Star gets you second prize, and so on. EuroMillions is an international lottery that started in Paris in 2004. There are no restrictions on players, meaning non-EU citizens are welcome to enter the draw. However, the rules state that players must be 18 years or older to participate.
EuroMillions HotPicks works the same way as the UK HotPicks, except that the winning numbers are those selected in the EuroMillions draw on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Lucky Star numbers don’t count as part of the EuroMillions HotPicks winning numbers. You can only match the five regular numbers. Matching all five numbers wins you the jackpot prize. The values of the jackpots decrease with fewer matching numbers.
In Set For Life, players can choose 5 numbers between 1 and 47 and one Life Ball number between 1 and 10. The aim of the game is to match 5 main numbers plus the Life Ball. This wins you the coveted prize of £10,000 every month for 30 years.
Players also win prizes for matching fewer numbers. Matching 5 numbers wins you £10,000 every month for one year. Four or fewer matching numbers will award you a single monetary prize of £250 or less.
Thunderball is pretty much the same as a regular lottery. The difference is in the numbers that determine the winning tickets. In Thunderball, 5 main numbers plus the Thunderball number win the jackpot. After that, the prize values decrease. The lowest prize in Thunderball is awarded for matching only the Thunderball number and no other numbers. The payout for matching the Thunderball is typically equal to three times the price of the ticket.
Millionaire Maker is more of a scratch card than your average lottery. Players purchase tickets and find out instantly if they’ve won a prize or not. However, winners only have a limited time to claim their prizes, usually a few months before the competition ends. The odds of buying winning Millionaire Maker cards are generally much higher than winning a regular lottery since the tickets are printed with a predetermined number of winning prizes. You can redeem low-value prizes immediately at the point of sale. You must redeem high-value rewards by completing claim forms.
The first Irish Lotto draw was held in 1988 and has since paid out values as high as €18.9 million on a single jackpot. Like most other lottos, the winning numbers are 6 regular numbers and a bonus number. Matching all 6 standard numbers wins the jackpot, 5 numbers plus the bonus wins the second prize, 5 regular numbers wins the third prize, and so on. If more than one person wins the same prize, the money is shared equally between them.
The Postcode lottery is a popular game in the UK. With the Postcode competition, players enter by paying a specific monthly fee in advance. They are then entered into all the draws that take place that month. Players don’t choose numbers. Winners are selected based on their postcodes. In other words, if you have entered the competition and your postcode numbers are drawn, you are a winner.
This is another UK-based competition that takes place every Wednesday and Saturday and matching 5 regular balls in the UK scores you the jackpot prize of £100,000. Smaller draws take place every day from Tuesday through to Saturday. Matching 5 numbers on these draws wins you £25,000, 4 numbers plus the bonus ball gets you £10,000, and so on. The lowest value prizes are for matching 2 balls, or 1 ball plus the bonus ball. This gets you a free ticket for the next draw.
Local draws occur in various Canadian provinces, although not all regions have separate local competitions. Since they are local, the jackpots are typically smaller than those in the national lotteries. Examples of local lottos include Quebec Max, Atlantic TAG, Western Extra in Western Canada, and BC Max in British Columbia. Professional Canadian lottery companies run local lottos.
There are free lotteries on the internet that offer prizes without purchasing tickets. Free entry to these competitions is usually part of a reward or bonus offer.
If the tickets are 100% free, any prizes won from these draws will probably have wagering requirements. This means that you’ll need to play the money through the online casino several times before withdrawing it.
Aside from classic lottery games where you buy a ticket and wait for the draw to find out if you’ve won, there are many other types of lotteries. Below are some of the most common forms you’ll find in Canada.
Instant win games include scratch cards. With scratch cards, you can instantly reveal the numbers or symbols on your card and see if you’ve won big. Scratch cards are generally cheaper than lottery tickets, so you can purchase more to increase your chances of winning.
Canadians can enjoy many bingo lottery games, including Instant Bingo which allows them to potentially win $50,000 with just a $3 ticket. However, this isn’t available online. Fortunately, many great bingo games with large jackpots are available to players at online casinos. These use RNG (Random Number Generator) software to ensure that the outcomes are random.
Official Canadian online lottery platforms also allow people to make legal sports bets. For example, you can visit the OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation), and find a section for sports betting.
Canadians can also place sports bets at offshore casinos that offer lottery games. Check out the list at the top of this guide to find some platforms that offer sports betting and lotteries.
If you live in Canada, then you’ll likely have heard of VLTs (Video Lottery Terminals). These are electronic devices that allow players to enjoy a variety of fair games, like poker and slots. You can also play virtual lottery games, although the potential winnings are far smaller than in the national lottery games.
Lotteries are not like typical casino games, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use bonuses with them. Here are some bonuses that may help you land the lottery top prize:
Yes, there will likely be terms attached to online lottery Canada bonuses. These may differ from regular casino promotions but are still worth being aware of. For example, you may be limited to what lotteries you can use the bonus with or how much time you have to use the offer.
Canadian lottery jackpot sizes can vary. Some are variable jackpots, which means they increase in size, whereas others are fixed. Here are some of the biggest lottery jackpots in Canada:
When choosing numbers, players have many different strategies available at their fingertips. A popular approach is to select a combination of ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ numbers. Hot numbers are those that have been winning regularly over the most recent draws. Conversely, cold numbers are those that haven’t been drawn in a while.
Another popular strategy is choosing a combination of your favourite numbers. These could include birthdays or dates of special occasions. This way, players keep playing the same set of numbers until their numbers win – if they ever do.
Whether you choose your numbers or let the system randomly select them for you, the statistical chances of winning remain the same. Simply follow your gut and let luck find its way!
The great thing about this type of competition is that no element of skill is required. All entrants have the same chances of winning; you don’t have to know betting strategies or have statistical expertise to win the lottery. As long as you have a ticket, you have the same chance of winning as all other participants.
Of course, buying more tickets increases your chances of winning, provided each ticket contains a different set of numbers. It’s seldom that a player buys two tickets with the same numbers, and both tickets win the jackpot. However, it has happened.
Look the other way if you come across people trying to sell you a ‘winning’ lottery system. Lotto is entirely random, and there’s no way to change that. You’re best off choosing a system that works for you and using your money to buy tickets, not paying someone else to select your numbers.
All you have to do is choose six numbers that nobody else picks, and the jackpot is yours! It can’t be that hard, can it?
Aldin Lewis won a staggering $70 million jackpot on the Lotto Max in 2020. The jackpot is capped at $70 million, meaning he won the biggest prize possible on the Lotto Max. Lewis was a regular lotto player from Brampton whose colleagues joked about him winning the lottery until he one day won it.
More than 800 km away, in Quebec, a family of eight won $70 million on a quick-pick ticket purchased in 2020. Gregory Mathieu bought the ticket 20 minutes before the cut-off time on the night of the draw.
The biggest lottery jackpot of all time was in the United States and was $1.586 billion and was split between 3 winning tickets bought in California, Florida, and Tennessee, respectively.
If you want to improve your chances of winning in your favourite lottery’s next draw, then you can join an online lottery syndicate. This involves a group of people buying tickets in the hope that one of them will win; then, any winnings are split fairly between the group. For example, there is a ‘Friends’ episode where the gang pools their money to increase their chances of winning; this is a lottery syndicate.
Online lotteries have cottoned on to syndicates, and many of them now make it easy for players to join groups with friends or even strangers in some cases. Each syndicate has a manager who ensures that players are charged the same amount and that any winnings are split fairly between the group.
To purchase a lottery ticket, you’ll need to deposit money online. Fortunately, plenty of payment methods are available, meaning you can easily add money to your account to buy a ticket. Here are the most commonly accepted payment options in Canada:
Many moons ago, lottery games were restricted to players in specific regions, resulting in meagre jackpots compared to these days. Thanks to the internet, there are staggering lotto jackpot prizes up for grabs today. However, finding your way to online lottery winnings can be a bit of a maze due to the volume of games and different variations available. To add to the confusion, plenty of fraudulent websites claim to sell you official tickets and instead take your money for nothing in return.
CasinoGrizzly is here to help. Visit our homepage for a list of trusted and regulated online casinos that give you great lottery games to compete in for instant win opportunities. Sign up today and claim your lotto welcome bonus!
You can head on down to your local retailer to purchase a ticket or find a trustworthy online website that sells them. There are official websites for each national or local Canadian lottery. These are the best sites to use when buying your tickets online. You can play your own numbers or choose quick picks online. Choose one of our recommended sites for safe online lotto fun.
All major lottery events are accompanied by live lotto draws. You can watch these live on television or stream them over the internet in real-time. If you miss the live show, you can find the results on the official lottery websites. Plenty of secondary websites also provide the numbers. Double-check that the winning numbers are correct if you are not checking them on an official lotto site.
Yes. As Canadians, you can access many Euro lottery games as long as you are 18 years or older. The EuroMillions, for example, has nine officially participating countries. Since Canada is not an official participant, you won’t find Euro lotto tickets in stores. You can buy them online at trusted sites.
No. As long as you are playing official lotteries, they won’t be rigged. Be wary of smaller lotto competitions where the results aren’t drawn on live television or live stream. When lottery officials regulate the draws, they are random and cannot be rigged. Lottery organizations profit from running the competitions since a percentage of all ticket sales go to the organization to continue operating. Lotteries also usually donate a portion of the profits to a well-known charity.
The odds of winning the main lottery jackpot depend on the lottery game being played. For example, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million and the Canada Daily Grand is 1 in 13.45 million. There are millions of possible number combinations that can win, which means that the more unique tickets you purchase, the higher your chances are of winning. Even if you don’t win the jackpot, you may win something.
There are several lottery draws happening every day of every week. Since there are numerous Canadian national lotteries, local lotteries, and Euro lotteries, there will always be more than one draw taking place daily. There are many additional international lotteries open to Canadians. You don’t have to look far to find a lucrative lotto jackpot draw.
You can buy lottery tickets online in Canada at online casinos or official lottery websites like the WCLC and the OLG.
Hey there, I'm Todd Knowles. I'm Chief Editor at CasinoGrizzly and a bonafide bonus and slot expert. I've been in the online casino industry for more than 5 years now, and love discovering the best bonuses and trying out the la... Read more about the author