Canadian Lotteries

You've got to be in it to win it, as the old adage goes, and by "it" we mean mind-bending, eye-bulging, life-altering, earth-shattering amounts of beautiful tax-free money. It doesn't matter whether you buy tickets at the local Mac's Milk or play the online lottery. Canada lottery fans have their eyes on the prize. Yes, whether you dream of buying your own private island with its own hollowed out volcano, or you're one of those freaks who claims that "riches wouldn't change you," we all secretly dream that one day our lottery numbers will come up. And who knows, as long as we continue to buy lottery tickets, maybe they will.

Find Your Local Lottery Site

Playing the lottery has become a weekly ritual to many of us, and meanwhile lotteries the world over have contributed to thousands of good causes. Lotteries in Canada contribute to schools, the arts, healthcare, community programs - you name it. And while the odds of hitting the biggest jackpots may be hugely stacked against us (see below), we can at least be secure in the knowledge that we're contributing to a good cause when we queue up for our tickets or play lotto online. Some people say that life is a lottery, but we say, somewhat more accurately, that a lottery is a game of chance that involves the drawing of lots for a prize.

Enjoying online lottery games is just one of many ways you can gamble online. Players in Canada are spoiled for choice, with online casinos, mobile and sportsbetting available any time, anywhere.

Did you know that the first recorded evidence of a lottery comes from the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 and 187 BC? We bet you didn't!

The earliest records of the actual sale of lottery tickets as we would understand it today, however, comes from the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus who was looking for a novel way to raise money to make some repairs around Rome. He was emperor at the time of Christ, incidentally, so it was a question of rendering unto Caesar what was Caesars, and Caesar said thank you very much. A very early version of the Euromillions, perhaps.

Fast-forward 2,000 years to dear old Canada and the Year of Our Lord 1970 when the first legal lottery was held here, in the form of Quebec's "Inter-Loto". The law had been changed the previous year to legalize lotteries and throughout the 1970s other provinces and regions would introduce their own versions.

Today, as you probably know, we have two nationwide lotteries, Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max, operated jointly by the five regional lottery commissions. And the best thing is, these days, you don't even have to queue up at the grocery store to get your ticket. If you live in British Columbia or Atlantic Canada, you can now purchase lottery tickets online. Canada has come a long way from the days of old Augustus Caesar; today it's all about lotto online, playing from the comfort of your own desktop or hand-held device.

If you live in a jurisdiction where you can't purchase lottery tickets online, Canada is still a pretty great place to buy lottery tickets. No matter where you live from coast to coast, you can play the Canadian lottery at your local convenience store, gas station, or grocery store. About the only place you can't play the lotto is at your local Tim Horton's (unless the Tim's is in a gas station and there's a kiosk nearby). However you choose to play, here's our lowdown on everything you need to know about how to play the Canadian lottery, online and off.

The lottery 6/49 was launched in 1982 and was the first time you could play Canadian lottery by picking your own numbers rather than receiving a printout of numbers randomly assigned to you, which, after all, is essentially just a raffle! Just think of not being able to choose your own numbers, with all their sentimental and mystical connotations! The dog's birthday, your old POW number, etc. Of course, the new idea soon caught on like wildfire, and the old school national lotteries, such as the Olympic Lottery, Lotto Canada and Superloto were soon phased out (hooray!).

Operated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, which is jointly owned by all five regional lottery commissions, such as the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), 6/49 is probably the most popular of all Canadian lotteries. In the 6/49 lottery, six numbers are drawn from a total of 48 (hence the name) with a jackpot prize of at least (points pinkie towards corner of mouth with relish) five million dollars - if you get all six. The odds of this? A mere 13,983,816 to 1. Contrast that with the odds of getting struck by lightning (500,000 to 1) and you can see you have your work cut out to win this jackpot.

But don't worry - there's also a bonus number, which means that if you get five numbers, plus the bonus number, you're on for the second prize, which is usually somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000. And there are masses of smaller prizes to be won, which are all far more achievable statistically.

Biggest Win

The biggest ever 6/49 jackpot – and the biggest in the history of the Canadian lottery – was $63.4 million, which was shared between four players. Three tickets were purchased in British Columbia and one in Alberta. That may not be as big as the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpots you get in the US, but who wants $223.7 million anyway? What would you spend it on? 63.4 million Canadian dollars would do us just fine.

In 2004, the price of a ticket doubled from $1 to $2 in order to create bigger jackpots, with prices rising again in 2013 to $3 per line. This further increased the minimum jackpot from $3,000,000 to a tasty $5,000,000. It also created a "Free Play" prize for matching two main numbers and a "Guaranteed Prize Draw" in which one player wins a guaranteed $1 million after every draw.

You can currently play 649 online, but only in a region that permits this, such as British Columbia or Atlantic Canada.

Lotto Max is the newest national lottery on the block, replacing the Lotto Super 7 in 2009. Once more, there are a set of 49 numbers to choose from, but this time players must choose seven numbers, which makes the odds of hitting all your numbers even greater, 1 in 28,633,528, to be exact. That's higher than the odds of giving birth to quadruplets (if you're a woman - it's greater still if you're a man), although, not, interestingly enough, quintuplets.

But don't worry, six out of seven numbers will get you a share of 4 percent of the prize pool, and those odds are drastically reduced. And get three numbers and you'll get a free ticket for the next draw, which is only a 1 in 8.421 chance!

In fact, there is a dynamic to the Lotto Max that is a little more equitable, we think. For a $5 ticket, you get two sets of seven numbers, one randomly generated. The jackpot itself is capped at $50 million, with any overspill redistributed in $1 million-sized chunks to more players via subsequent draws, called Maxmillions Bonus Draws, and that means there's a little more sharing going on.

Biggest Win

On two occasions the Lotto Max jackpot has exceeded $100 million, thanks to three weeks of rollovers, once with 18 millionaires being created. In July 2013 one player won the capped $50 million jackpot, and 17 of the available 50 Maxmillions prizes were won by other players, with the remaining $33 million rolling over to the next jackpot cycle. Wowza!

Players who live in certain parts of the country can play Canadian lottery online. The online lottery is available to players who live under the jurisdiction of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. In 2004 the ALC introduced its online lottery, Canada's first, with the introduction of PlaySphere system. British Columbia followed soon after with its PlayNow.com website, which in 2004 was Canada's first legal online gambling website.

As well as being able to access numerous different products at the click of a button - from online scratch cards to bingo and fantasy sports games - there are many other advantages to playing online. First of all, you never need to worry about forgetting to buy a ticket because you can set up a subscription that will automatically register a ticket with your numbers for each draw.

There are also safety benefits, such as strict age and identity verification measures. You can pre-set a deposit limit with a 24-hour delay before you're allowed to increase it so you don't overspend, and the system will track your history so you can see how much you've been spending over the course of the year. These are all safeguards to protect the player and ensure we gamble responsibly.

So what are you waiting for? It's time to get connected and play lottery online, Canada!

As well as sharing the two national lotteries, the five regional lottery commissions all run a whole host of their own games. These include regional daily and weekly jackpot draws, as well as bingo, keno, scratch cards and fantasy sports - all differently branded in wondrous and colorful ways. We suggest you take a look at their websites to see what's on offer.

The five commissions are: the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, which serves Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick; British Columbia Lottery Corporation; Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation; Loto-Québec; and Western Canada Lottery Corporation, which serves Manitoba, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Yukon Territory.

So check them out and see what each one has to offer. Just remember us when you come to buy your private island with the hollowed out volcano. You said that riches wouldn't change you!