Oz Lotto: Everything You Need To Know

Have you been dreaming about buying a new home? Going on your dream vacation? Buying a new car? Maybe starting a new business? Oz Lotto can help you turn those dreams into reality!

Oz Lotto has been a popular lottery game in Australia since 1994. Promising huge jackpots, the game has turned tons of Aussie’s into millionaires and you could be one of them too! Here is everything you need to know about the famous lottery game.

What Is Oz Lotto?

Many lottery players ask - what is Oz Lotto? Oz Lotto is a national lottery game played throughout all of Australia. It is owned by Tatts Group and administered by Lotterywest in Western Australia and The Lott in all other Australian states.

Played each Tuesday at 8:30 PM AEST, the game is known for its large jackpots and simple rules. Each week they offer a minimum jackpot of AUD $2 million, but it often rolls over. This means that if no one wins the Division one prize, next week it will be higher. The Division one prize pool keeps on rolling over until it is won. With jackpots going up to as high as AUD $100 million, Oz Lotto is one of the most popular games played in the country.

History Of Oz Lotto

Oz Lotto launched on February 26th, 1994 and was Australia’s first true national lottery game. At first, Oz Lotto was just like Saturday Lotto, where six winning numbers between 1 and 45 are drawn. It remained this way for the first two decades since the game launched. However, on October 18th, 2005, a seventh winning number was added to the game, leading to a total of seven prize divisions. This did not affect the minimum prize level but did slightly affect the branding of the game.

After adding a seventh winning number, many Australian states decided to change the name of the game in order to emphasize the extra number. For example, Tatt’s regions changed the name to Super 7’s Oz Lotto; in Queensland, the name was changed to Oz 7 Lotto. Though, in 2012, Oz Lotto returned to its original branding.

The largest prize ever won in Australian Oz Lotto history was AUD $111,972,151.04. It was won by four players on November 6th, 2012. This draw was so popular that nearly one in two Australians purchased tickets for the game. However, that was not the only draw that exceeded AUD $100 million in Oz Lotto history. In 2009, two lucky ticket holders won the Division one prize pool of AUD $106.5 million. Both winners received around AUD $53 million each, making that the largest Oz Lotto win by an individual up to date.

In 2013, it was calculated that in the history of Oz Lotto, there had been a total of over AUD $5.6 million won in prize money and over 120 million Oz Lotto winners - 448 of which became millionaires!

Oz Lotto Rules

To put it shortly, the main point of Oz Lotto rules is that in order to win the First Division prize pool, you must match the numbers on your ticket with the seven winning numbers drawn. There are also other combinations to win prizes from other Divisions.

Oz Lotto Prices

A standard ticket for one Oz Lotto game costs AUD $1.30. You can either play your own numbers or grab a QuickPick, where the numbers are randomly generated for you. There are various packages of Oz Lotto prices to choose from, depending on how many games you would like to play:

Tickets for Oz Lotto can be bought through newsagents and other convenience stores, as well as online. However, be sure to buy your tickets before the draw as entries close on Tuesdays at 7:25 PM AEST. You must be at least 18 years old to buy a ticket.

Check My Ticket Oz Lotto

The results to check your ticket are generally available after the draw on Tuesday night at 8:30 PM AEST. So, you can usually expect the results to be available by 9 PM AEST. You can find these results online or at your nearest Oz Lotto retailer. Just use the self-service checker in-store or ask the retailer to help you out! Smaller prizes can even be paid out on the spot.

Oz Lotto Results Tuesday

You can check your Oz Lotto ticket on Tuesday night when the results are broadcasted on 7TWO at 8:30 PM AEST. However, if you missed the draw, you can also check your Oz Lotto results online or at your nearest Oz Lotto retailer.

Oz Lotto Winning Combinations

There is a total of seven prize divisions in a different Oz Lotto winning combinations for every one of them. Here are the winning combinations for each of the prize divisions:

How To Play Oz Lotto

1. Start by deciding whether you want to play a QuickPick or a Marked Entry game. A QuickPick is where the numbers are randomly generated for you and the number of games you play is fixed. A Marked Entry is when you decide how many games you want to play and you select the numbers you want to play yourself.

2. Once you have your numbers, you can increase your chances to win by using a System Entry or a Pick Entry. A System Entry allows you to pick more numbers from the barrel. So, if your normal game consists of 7 numbers, a System Entry allows you to pick from 8 to 20 numbers, increasing your chances to win. It’s basically like playing a lot of standard games with an entry covering every single combination of numbers you have chosen. A Pick Entry, on the other hand, guarantees you one or two winning numbers. So, basically, you just choose fewer numbers in each game panel because you already have one or two winning numbers! Adding a System Entry and Pick Entry is not necessary to play - you can skip this step if you would like.

3. Now, you have your numbers, you may or may not have added a System Entry or Pick Entry, and the last step is to simply wait for the draw! The Oz Lotto draw takes place every Tuesday night at 8:30 PM AEST. So, tune into 7TWO, where the draw is broadcasted, cross your fingers, and wait for the winning numbers to be drawn! If you missed the draw, you can always check the results online or at your nearest Oz Lotto retailer.

Additionally if you are looking for something more on how to play Oz Lotto, there is the option of playing a Syndicate game. This is when a group of people collectively buys a certain number of lottery tickets with the agreement that any prizes won will be split between all group members. This could be a group of family, friends, colleagues, or even strangers! You could either join a random Syndicate online or set up your own. Basically, the whole point of lottery Syndicates is that you can increase your chances to win and spend less money than you would if you were playing individually.

How To Win Oz Lotto

Every week, there is a guaranteed minimum Division 1 prize pool of at least AUD $2 million. However, the prize is often higher and has even reached up to AUD $100 million in the past.

There is a total of seven prize divisions with different winning combinations for each of them. The higher the prize, the slimmer the chances are of winning. For example, the odds of winning the Division 1 prize in Oz Lotto are 1 in 45,379,620, while the odds of winning the Division 7 prize are 1 in 87 with a single game. Here are the odds of winning each prize division:

If you are facing with a question - how to win Oz Lotto, the answer is quite simple: you have to match at least three winning numbers plus one or two supplementary numbers. The more numbers you match, the bigger the prize you win!

If you do win, claiming your prize is very simple. So simple, in fact, that you don’t have to do anything! Oz Lotto will automatically transfer your win to your Oz Lotteries online account. From there, you can decide how you would like to receive your money - by cheque, direct deposit into your bank account or into your Paypal account. All winnings are paid out tax-free.

Recent Winners Of Oz Lotto

One of the most recent big winnings in Oz Lotto was during the draw of March 26th, 2019. The Division 1 prize pool was a whopping AUD $70 million and there were three winning entries. However, surprisingly, two of those lucky entries were held by one Melbourne man! The other recent winners of Oz Lotto was from Tasmania. Each entry took home AUD $23,333,333.34, meaning the Melbourne man took home double - AUD $46,666,666,68.

At first, when lottery officials tried to contact the lucky man, he didn’t answer. However, after a few attempts, they finally got in touch with him and he was shocked: “You’re kidding!” he exclaimed. “Am I seeing things? I just checked my entry online and I think I know what you’re about to tell me. I’m speechless. I can’t believe it. I just finished work for the night.”

After talking a bit, it turned out that the man had been playing those same marked numbers for thirty years: “I play every week. I have always marked my entries but I have never chosen the numbers on anything in particular. They weren’t special before, but they are now,” he joked.

When asked how the lucky man was planning on spending his money, he was not quite sure yet: “I need time for the news to register. I might think about retiring. First maybe a new home or a holiday. I’ll definitely share it with my family.”

The other winning entry for the Division one prize pool of AUD $70 million was left unregistered. All the lottery officials know is that is was purchased in Tasmania. Unfortunately, they have no way of contacting the ticket holder so they are waiting for the lucky winner to get in touch themselves!

Along with these three winning entries for the Division one prize, a total of 1,150,318 prizes with over AUD $24.64 million were won in divisions two through seven.

Going back a few months to another recent win, we have the draw 1302. On January 29th, 2019, a Bathurst couple won the Division one prize pool of AUD $20 million. However, they did not know that had won at first… In fact, they only came forward to claim their prize three days after the draw!

“My wife actually bought the ticket and I mentioned to her a couple of times during the day yesterday if she had checked it and she kept telling me she hadn’t,” the man told lottery officials. “Last night I said to her ‘go get that ticket, I’ve got a really funny feeling about it. So she went and got the ticket and we checked our numbers online and sure enough, my gut instinct was right! We couldn’t believe it. We were in total disbelief.”

The couple had been playing in Oz Lotto for years now, but they never imagined they would win. So, when asked how they were planning on spending their money, they weren’t quite sure yet: “It’s really difficult to imagine,” the man laughed. “But our first priority will be to help our family. Then we will pay all our bills and think about retiring early and making some exciting plans.”

Now let’s go back to the holidays, to the draw 1279. Taking place on Christmas Day last year (2018), a Hervey Bay-based man got himself a Christmas present like no other! The young man, who was in his 20’s, had obtained a new multi-millionaire status after winning the Oz Lotto Division One prize pool of AUD $10 million. “So it’s a pretty good present,” he told a lottery official. “It’s a Christmas I’ll never forget”.

When asked how he was planning on spending his newly won money, the man said: “We’ll certainly be buying a house – there’ll be no more renting. We just want to live comfortably for the rest of our lives and be happy. I really can’t believe it. I’m retiring in my 20s.”

Turns out, this wasn’t the first big win in Hervey Bay. Back in 2016, two grandparents from Hervey Bay won the Powerball jackpot of AUD $70 million. Maybe Hervey Bay is a lucky hotspot for lottery tickets? Who knows…