 LOTTO649
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Lotto 6/49 is one of Canada's
national lottery games, along with
Lotto Super 7.
Lotto 649
winning numbers are
drawn every Wednesday and Saturday. The 6/49, launched in June
1982, was the first nationwide
Canadian lottery
game to allow players to choose their own numbers.
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Previous national games
such as Lotto Canada and Superlotto (and regional lotteries
such as Western Express and The Provincial) used printed numbers
on tickets. Lotto 6/49 rendered these forms of lotteries obsolete
in Canada.
As the name implies, six numbers are drawn from a set of 49. If a
ticket matches all six numbers, the jackpot prize of at least
$3,500,000 is won. A bonus number is also drawn, and if a player's
ticket matches five numbers and the bonus number, he or she wins
the "second prize" which is usually between $100,000 and $500,000.
Should more than one player win the top or second prize, it is
split amongst them. Lesser prizes are also awarded if one matches
at least three numbers, or two numbers plus the bonus number. If
the top prize is not won, the jackpot prize increases for the next
draw.
Lotto 6/49 tickets are $2 per line as of June 2004. It had
previously been $1, but was raised in order to offer larger
jackpots. The minimum jackpot amount was also raised from
$2,000,000 to $3,500,000. As many as ten lines can be printed on
one individual ticket; however the maximum number of lines varies
from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, in the Western
Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC), which encompasses Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, The Northwest Territories, the Yukon and
Nunavut, the maximum number of lines allowed for one ticket is
six.
The game's largest jackpot, and a Canadian lottery record, was
drawn on October 26, 2005. The single winning ticket, worth $54.3
million, was purchased in Camrose, Alberta by a group of 17 oil
and gas plant workers. The previous record was $37.8 million for a
Lotto Super 7 draw on May 17th 2002. The jackpot was originally
estimated at $40 million, but because of rapid sales created by
lottery fever across the country, ballooned to $54,294,712. It was
estimated that two out of every three adult Canadians had
purchased a ticket. A sales peak of 100 tickets per minute was
reached. An estimated $99.4 million worth of
Lotto6/49 tickets were sold. The winning numbers
were: 5, 11, 20, 30, 37, 43 and bonus 31.
Loto 6/49 has permeated Canadian society and
culture to a significant degree. It is common, for instance,
for high school mathematics courses to employ case studies
involving the game's odds. Indeed, casual conversations with
Canadians reveal that it is common knowledge that the odds of
winning the jackpot are about "1 in 14 million" (although many
less accurately refer to "1 in 13 million" odds).
Media coverage is also quite extensive, with radio and TV ads
broadcasted frequently during the days prior to a draw. As of
2007, television ads depict Lotto 6/49 players doing a "happy
dance" — an upbeat, celebratory dance in anticipation of a win
(implicitly a win of the entire jackpot, as it is the total
dollar amount of the jackpot to which the voice-over refers).
Considering the "long shot" nature of the odds of winning the
jackpot, however, critics can point out the statistical
distortion inherent in such depictions of "expected" wins.
Despite such criticisms, ballooning ticket sales translate
into millions of dollars in earnings for the lottery, thus
facilitating significant contributions by its charitable wing.
Arguably, visits to Lotto 6/49 ticket vendors — mainly lotto
booths in supermarkets, malls, and variety stores — also
promote sales of other goods available at those locations.
Moreover, social conservatives would regard Lotto 6/49 as a
"softer" gambling alternative to casinos, since the latter
subject patrons to an environment permeated with alcoholic
consumption, competition (often heated) with other players,
and the vices traditionally associated with casinos (e.g.,
prostitution, the drug trade).
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