American and European lotteries have got nothing on the Australian lotteries and the rich history that surrounds them. The Powerball, Tatts Lotto and the OZ Lotto all come from a long line of sweepstakes that were prevalent during the 1970s in every state. With some of the best winning odds when compared to the lotteries of the rest of the world, Australian lotteries are bound to give some kind of reward for the fortunate and what’s more interesting is that the winnings are tax-free.
As if that wasn’t enough, Australians can look forward to taking home a record win in the millions and, in the rarer cases, they can win 100 million in the Powerball winning draw.
Australian Lotteries:
As the government took a more authoritative approach after the 1980s, the illegal sweepstakes became a legitimate lottery business operated and owned by mainly two bodies working under different licenses. Lotterywest maintains all the operations in Western Australia, while Tattersalls Group runs the rest. The various operating licenses are available to these subsidiaries as follows:
- Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales come under NSW lotteries.
- All the northern territories, Victoria and Tasmania, come under Tatts.
- The Golden Casket also works in the Northern Territories as well as Queensland.
- And finally, Southern Australia is headed by the SA Lotteries.
As to the various lotteries that Aussies can try a hand on, they are listed below:
- Monday Lotto: Drawn every week on Monday, the Monday Lotto winnings are decided by picking eight random numbers from a barrel that has 45 marked numbers. The first six numbers constitute the winning numbers, while the last two are the supplementary numbers. The winning numbers and the two supplementary numbers determine the division in which the prize pool is won. With a minimum entry of four games, the odds of winning significant prizes increase with each winning number.
- Wednesday Lotto: The Wednesday Lotto follows the same playing pattern as the Monday Lotto. The only exception is that the numbers are drawn every Wednesday. The Wednesday Lotto is also known as the midweek lotto across Australia.
- Tuesday Lotto: Also known as the Oz Lotto, the minimum jackpot, depending upon the odds, can be just shy of two million dollars, although record jackpots have been around a hundred million dollars and more. However, compared to the Wednesday and the Monday lottos, the probability of success is about 1 in 45 million.
- Saturday Lotto: The Tatts Lotto is probably the most popular Australian Lotto, where the minimum jackpot is about 4 million dollars. Players can try to beat the odds of 1 in 8 million and get a chance to win a record amount of 33 million and more.
- Powerball: The Australian Powerball is one of the most sought after lotto games in the country owing to the large reward pool that winners can get a piece of. Players can choose four tickets: The Standard ticket, the Powerhit ticket, the syndicate ticket and the system’s ticket. Standard tickets have 7 main winning numbers and a Powerball number, giving the buyer a single chance at winning. The Powerhit tickets are way more expensive but give buyers a guarantee of a Powerball number in every game. Syndicate tickets, on the other hand, share the winnings with other people owing to the lower price of the ticket. Then there’s the system ticket that gives the buyer a chance to play more numbers than the standard tickets.
The other Lotto games that are not as prominent are:
- The Set for Life is a prize fund drawn every day.
- The Lucky Lotteries
- Pools
- Super 66