You will find amazing to know that Captain James Cook on his voyage saw a new land and named that piece of land Point Hicks after his Lieutenant, Zachary Hicks. Later Cook in honour for his native England named the land New South Wales on 20th April 1770.
In the same way like Captain James Cook himself, Oz Lotto was the first lottery to make it to New South Wales. It began in 26th February 1994 as Australia’s first fully national game as Saturday Lotto at that time did not include NSW. Oz Lotto holds draws every Tuesday night. To win the big jackpot, match 7 main numbers ranging from 1 to 45. Some secondary prizes require matching a certain amount of main numbers plus one of the two bonus balls picked during the draw. The current Oz Lotto jackpot is AUD$2 million.
Few Facts
- Oz Lotto is a national lottery game, administered by Tattersall’s and played on Tuesday nights.
- Each game costs $1.10 plus agent’s commission.
- Although the draw now requires seven numbers to be selected, the minimum prize level (of 3 winning numbers and one of the supplementary numbers) was unchanged, thus leading to seven prize divisions
- At the beginning the lottery had a 6/45 matrix, but this was changed in October 2005 to include a seventh number which lengthened the previously very short odds. There is a guaranteed minimum jackpot of AUS $2 million, but if there is no Division 1 winner this jackpot can rollover to create very large top prizes. The largest prize ever won in Australia was on the Oz Lotto, which was for AUS $111 million and was won on 6th November 2012.
- The Oz Lotto is played across the whole of Australia and with now online ticket availability, can be played across the rest of the world too.
- The Oz Lotto is drawn once a week at approximately 20.30 AEDT on Tuesday night and is usually broadcast on Channel Seven at 20.40.
How to Play Oz Lotto
Oz Lotto is Australian for BIG jackpots guaranteeing a minimum division one prize pool of$2 million every Tuesday and can jackpot to $50 million or more. Every Tuesday night, 9 balls are drawn at random from forty five balls numbered 1 to 45. The first seven balls drawn are the “winning numbers” and the last two numbers are the “supplementary numbers” To win first division you need to match 7 numbers in a single game with the 7 winning numbers from the draw.
- QuickPick Entries are perfect if playing lotto for the first time because your numbers are generated at random for you. QuickPick Entries are available in the following sizes: Mini QuickPick – 9 Games, Regular QuickPick – 12 Games, Super QuickPick – 18 Games, Mega QuickPick – 24 Games, Jumbo QuickPick – 36 Games and Maxi QuickPick – 50 Games
- If you’ve got your own favourite numbers pick up an Oz Lotto coupon at your local Tatts Outlet or select your numbers when you buy Oz Lotto online. Mark 7 numbers in each game panel and Play 1 – 18 game panels
- A System Entry gives you the option to play more numbers in Oz Lotto per game for a greater chance to win. As an example, to win Division 1 in Oz Lotto, you need all seven winning numbers. To increase your chances of winning, you could play a System 9 which means you get to choose nine numbers for that game rather than the usual seven which is equivalent to 36 standard games. Take an Oz Lotto coupon at your local Tatts Outlet or select your numbers when you buy Oz Lotto online. Mark 8 – 20 numbers in each game panel (e.g mark 9 numbers for a System 9 Entry etc) Play 1 – 50 games on a QuickPick coupon or play 1 – 18 games on a marked coupon. Mark the “System/Pick” check box on your coupon Note that Oz Lotto System 8 QuickPick Entries have minimum 2 game panels. Maximum number of game panels will vary between 1-50 for high level System Entries.
- Play an Oz Lotto Pick Entry and you can guarantee yourself either one or two of the winning numbers required to win. You can play Oz Lotto Pick Entry with your favourite numbers on a marked coupon or as a QuickPick. As an example, if you play an Oz Lotto Pick 5 Entry you are guaranteed two out of the seven winning numbers, and you only have to pick the remaining five winning numbers in that game panel. For a Pick 5 Entry – mark 5 numbers in each game panel (gives you 2 out of the 7 winning numbers) or for a Pick 6 Entry – mark 6 numbers in each game panel (gives you 1 out of the 7 winning numbers) For a QuickPick entry play 1 – 50 games or for a marked coupon play 1 – 18 games
- When playing an Oz Lotto Standard, Oz Lotto System or Oz Lotto Pick Entry, if you have marked only a few game panels and want to play a bigger entry, all you have to do is ask for a Top Up. The remaining game panels are QuickPicked for you as standard games up to 9, 12, 18, 24, 36 or 50 games. Let your Tatts Retailer know how many games you want to top up to or, if you are purchasing online, you can select the ‘QuickPick row’ or ‘QuickPick unfilled games’ options to Top Up a Standard, System or Pick Entry.
- Also try a Multi-week entry! It allows you to play the same numbers in your favourite Oz Lotto game for 2 to 10 weeks at a time.
- For big Oz Lotto jackpot go for TattsLotto Superdraw. Entries for specific draws are available up to 10 weeks prior to any lotto draw date.
Prizes and the Win
Players can participate in Oz Lotto by purchasing tickets any time before 7:00pm on the night of the draw, every Tuesday at 8:30pm AEST. The most prominent land-based vendor is the Tatts Group newsagency chain (formerly Tattersall’s), but you can also choose to buy tickets over the Web at Oz Lotteries.
In order to win that jackpot prize, players have to match all seven main numbers to the seven on their ticket. This makes the odds of winning around 1 in 45.38 million. However, there are six other prizes that can also be won, which brings the overall odds of winning down to about 1 in 55. Players can win prizes if they match four or more of the main numbers, or by matching some of the main numbers as well as one or both of the two supplementary balls that are drawn. These supplementary are extras which, when matched with any of the seven numbers on your ticket, can help you form lesser winning combinations.
To win each division, you will need to hit the following combinations:
- Division 1: All seven main numbers
• Division 2: Six main numbers and a supplementary number
• Division 3: Six main numbers
• Division 4: Five main numbers and a supplementary number
• Division 5: Five main numbers
• Division 6: Four main numbers
• Division 7: Three main numbers and a supplementary number
The guaranteed minimum jackpot amount for Oz Lotto is AUD $2 million, but the top prize often rises to a much higher level. In fact, Oz Lotto currently holds the record for awarding the largest ever Division 1 payout in Australian lottery history – nearly $112 million, shared across four tickets back in 2012. That was just one of two Oz Lotto jackpots to exceed AUD $100,000,000.
Oz Tickets
If you play Oz Lotto through www.OzLotteries.com, you can choose from three different kinds of tickets:
Standard Tickets
These are exactly what you would expect them to be: single lottery tickets that give you one chance to win. Of course, you can play multiple standard tickets if you want more opportunities to win a prize, but there are easier ways to cover several combinations of numbers at a time. Each individual game costs $1.35 at Oz Lotteries, so a standard sheet of 18 lines will set you back a little over $25.
System Play
This kind of ticket allows you to buy all combinations of a certain group of numbers. For instance, if there are nine numbers you would like to play, and you want to cover all possible winning combinations of those numbers, you can play a System 9, which requires 36 tickets in all. System tickets for Oz Lotto start at around $10, while the most expensive – a System 15 – costs over $8,600 and covers a whopping 6435 standard games.
Syndicates
Another way to gain more winning opportunities is to buy into a syndicate. These groups allow you to buy a share of a larger number of Oz Lotto games without covering the entire cost of the tickets yourself. In this way you will increase your chances to win major prizes by buying into the bigger systems, although you will also be sharing any wins with the other members of the syndicate.
Buying Tickets
The easiest way to buy tickets for the Oz Lotto jackpot is to go online at Oz Lotteries – Australian Gambling‘s number one Internet lotto destination. It covers all the major Aussie lottery draws, including Saturday Lotto, Powerball, Lotto Strike, and The Pools.
You can even buy mobile Oz Lotto tickets on Apple iOS, Google Android, and BlackBerry devices, as well as most other smartphone and tablet formats.
OZ Lotto,