Lotteries are very popular in Australia, second maybe only to online gambling, though many different regulations are surrounding the latter, so it is a subject of debate whether Aussies can take advantage of bonuses from other countries. Luckily, this piece isn’t about that, but about the lotteries and their biggest wins.
Different Varieties
You would think that a country would be happy with just one lottery, but it is a pretty big deal here. There are more than half a dozen lotteries most Aussies know about, so we’ll start by discussing a few of them.
Lotto
One of the most common lotteries is also the one with the simplest name – Lotto. Every Saturday, there is Saturday Lotto, held across the entire country. Tattersalls runs the draw and the lottery is sometimes referred to as Tattslotto. It costs about AUD 0.60 per game.
Another Lotto game played everywhere in Australia is Monday & Wednesday Lotto, which is sometimes called X Lotto in South Australia. To enter, the prospective participants need only pay $0.55 plus commission.
Oz Lotto
Oz Lotto is a lottery that started as a variation of Saturday Lotto, though its differences to its predecessor were stressed with the presence of the seventh ball. At the time of writing, it holds the record for the largest Australian lotto jackpot, but more on that later. It is held on Tuesdays.
Powerball
As the name suggests, it is a variation of the very famous Powerball one usually associates with the United States of America. Seven balls are drawn from 35, with the Powerball being drawn from 20. There are more divisions than in most lotteries, but it makes it that much more difficult to win the jackpot.
Set For Life
This is the youngest of Australian lotteries and was based on different lotto games outside Australia. It is aimed primarily at young people and differs from others by the payout method. Instead of winning the large jackpot sum at once, the winner is paid out on a monthly basis over the course of 20 years, though other prizes are paid out in full.
Biggest Wins
When no-one wins the jackpot, its value usually increases for the next draw. That is one of the appeals of playing the lottery. Here are a few big winners.
In 2008, a person from Melbourne broke the Powerball record by winning $58,737,207.
In 2009, there were two winners that split the Oz Lotto jackpot of $106 million. Had there been only one winner, the feat would have been even more impressive. Still, $53,274,992.38 per person is nothing to sneeze at and the winners from Queensland and South Australia must have felt very lucky indeed to be a part of history.
In 2012, Oz Lott struck again, this time with $111 million, shared by 4 different entries, two of which bought their tickets in Victoria, one in New South Wales, and one in Queensland.
