Ricardo's Business

SBS Presenter Ricardo Goncalves with the latest in finance.

Chances of winning Oz Lotto

02 May 2012 | 15:39 | Source: Ricardo Goncalves, SBS

More than one in five Australians over the age of 18 opened their wallets for a chance at the $50million Oz Lotto jackpot last night.

6

Comments | Add yours

A Tatts group spokesperson told me, the amount estimated to have been spent by hopeful players couldn’t be revealed, because it’s an ASX listed company and the information is share price sensitive.

But what we do know, are the odds of winning such a prize.

Because no one picked the winning seven numbers, the division one pool surges to $70million next week, still below the all-time record of $106.5million won by two players in June 2009.

If you play one game, the odds of winning the Oz Lotto jackpot is one in 45,379,620.

That’s double Australia’s population.

Odds based on 18 games is 2,521,090 to one.

It’s still way off the world’s largest lottery jackpot of US$656million.

That’s $634million if you convert it at today’s rate.

The Mega Millions winning numbers were selected by three players across three states in the US back in March, which means the money was split three ways.

And the chances of winning the Mega Millions?

US lottery officials say, one in 176,000,000.

You’re more likely to be struck by lightning.

 The US National Lightning Safety Institute puts those chances at one in 280,000.

top

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.

Your Comments

If you play 1 line of number every week ...

bep - from point cook, 44 years ago

Lighting and david are partially correct. If you play every week you give your self more "opportunities" to win. The probability of winning each game doesn't change (obviously) but you are playing 52 games a year means you have 52 games to win at. The probability of winning at least 1 game over a year is 1 in 872,685. This is equal to 1 - Probability(losing all 52 games)

Odds

Emily - from Melbourne, 44 years ago

At $1.20 a game it's a small risk and a big return.

Alex, Alex, Alex.....

david - from 3075, 44 years ago

The event from week to week is independent thus you don't reduce your odds to 48,483 from 45million after playing for a year, it is still 18 in 45million or however many games you play over 45 million every time you play no matter how many times you play in a year. Silly sausage.

typo

Alex - from Melbourne, 44 years ago

*Typo* I think you might be missing a step in your calculation. The likelihood of being struck by lightning is one in 280,000 ... at some point in a year. So if you played 18 games of Oz lotto each week for a year, I think your odds of winning are more like one in 48,483. So you are actually *less* likely to be struck by lightning

Slim chance

Artdeconerd - from Canberra, 44 years ago

I only know that if I don't put in my bid, I will never win!

Lightning

Alex - from Melbourne, 44 years ago

I think you might be missing a step in your calculation. The likelihood of being struck by lightning is one in 280,000 ... at some point in a year. So if you played 18 games of Oz lotto each week for a year, I think your odds of winning are more like one in 48,483. So you are actually more likely to be struck by lightning