Australian Lottery - Oz Lotto

Play World Lottos with ...

The Oz Lotto is one of several lottery games and related products available across the Australia. Some of these are in-state lotteries and others such as the Powerball are country-wide games.

Australian lottery games can trace their history right back to 1895 when the original company began its first lottery operations in Hobart, Tasmania.

These days, Australian lotteries are made up of both state government owned and privately owned lottery companies – all of whom are licensed either by the state or territory in which they are based.

The major Australian lottery companies are are privately owned but work closely with the state run New South Wales Lotteries.

The national Australian lottery games are operated jointly by the state run companies along with the independent private companies who work together in partnership, jointly conducting these games across Australia.

They all work together for this partnership, taking care of the administration of the nationwide games and Powerball as well as the lottery we will be having a closer look at here.

Oz Lotto – Overview

The Oz Lotto is the original national Australian lottery game and was launched on February 26th 1994 and has been the most popular Australian lotto game since.

It was the only national Australian lottery game available until the introduction of Powerball in 1996 and is still considered to be the flagship game in the Oz lotteries portfolio.

The Oz Lotto is a traditional jackpot style draw game and is drawn every Tuesday evening at 6.28 pm.

The jackpot starts off at AU$1 million and will increase each week that it is not won by rolling over until such time that all 7 main numbers are matched – making for some huge jackpot sums.

Since the 7th number was introduced the game has undergone a slight re-branding in certain states being known as Super 7’s Lotto in Victoria, Tasmania, Northern Territories and the Australian Capital Territory, Oz 7 Lotto in Queensland whilst remaining as Oz Lotto in the other states.

How It Works

The Oz Lotto uses what’s known as a 7/45 matrix which means that when playing, you need to select 7 numbers from a pool of numbers from 1 to 45. If you match all 7 numbers drawn then you will be an Oz Lotto jackpot winner.

After the 7 main numbers are drawn, 2 extra numbers, known as supplementary numbers are then drawn, increasing the number of ways in which you can win on the Oz Lotto to 7 in total.

A SlikPik facility is available when playing Oz Lotto games similar to the Lucky Dip or Easy Pick options that are used in the UK National Lottery, EuroMillions or most USA lotteries – which means that you can get the computer terminal to select all your Oz Lotto numbers for you if you wish.

So, playing the Oz Lotto couldn’t be easier…just select your own 7 numbers or let the computer generate them automatically for you with a SlikPik. Whatever you decide to do, OzLotteries makes this an easy and simple process for you if you are going to buy lottery tickets online with them.

Each entry on the Australian Lotto game costs just AU$1.00. You can check the Oz Lotto results on television as they are televised live on Tuesday evenings at 18.28 Perth time or use our World Lottery Results service on this site.

Who Can Play?

As with most lottery games around the world, you would normally have needed to live in the country concerned to actually take part in any of its games. Now, however, with the welcome presence of authentic and authorized online lottery ticket agents such as TheLotter and OzLotteries , you are able to play most lotteries from the comfort of your own home no matter where in the world you live.

This applies to any of the Australian lottery games available and you can pick your Oz Lottery numbers online and purchase your tickets whether you live in Australia or anywhere else around the world.

This is excellent news, of course, if you live outside of Australia and want to play the Australian Lotto and guarantee your entry into the next draw or just simply wish to enjoy the convenience of being able to buy lottery tickets online.

Once you have entered into the Oz Lotto, you are then easily able to check the Australian Lotto results online to see how you have done and to find out if you have become one of the lucky lottery winners. The age limit at which you can purchase tickets for any of the Australian games varies from state to state but will either be 16 or 18 years of age.

Information & Background

The Oz Lotto underwent a major change on October 18th 2005 when its matrix was changed from 6/45 to 7/45 a seventh number being added to the number of balls drawn.

This change, along with the 2 supplementary balls meant that larger jackpot wins were now more common in the Australian Lotto game.

You can check most Australian lottery results at the retailers, in many Australian newspapers, on the television stations Channel 7 and GWN where they are broadcast live or online here at OzLotto Results

If you need to check any previous Australian Lotteries results you can do so here at Past OzLotto Results

What Are The Odds?

With the OzLotto there are a good number of ways in which you can win – even more so since Oz Lotteries introduced a seventh number and the supplementary numbers.

The chances of winning an Oz Lotto jackpot are 1 in 45.37 million for matching the 7 main numbers correctly, for these odds you could be one of the Oz Lotto jackpot winners.

For one of the prizes on the second division and correctly matching 6 of the main numbers plus a supplementary number, the odds come in at 1 in 3.24 million.

The likelihood of winning a third tier prize by matching 6 of the main numbers comes in at 1 in 180,078 and for a prize on the fourth tier matching 5 main numbers plus a supplementary number the odds come down to 1 in 29,602.

For a prize on the fifth division by matching 5 main numbers, you are looking at odds of 1 in 3,430.

Sixth division odds come in at 1 in just 154 for correctly matching 4 main numbers with the final division 7 odds being 1 in just 87 for matching just 3 of the main numbers plus a supplementary number.

The overall odds of winning any prize are a very reasonable 1 in just 55.

Record Jackpots

In October 2007, the OzLotto jackpot reached its record figure at the time of AUS$30 Million. This was won by a single player from Western Australia and was the highest jackpot the Lotto game had produced since it began in 1994.

Another OzLotto record was created in April 2008 when 2 entries from Sydney, won a jackpot figure of AUS$47.98 Million.

Oz Lotteries created another record in July 2008 when its Lotto game produced a jackpot amount of AUS$50 Million – equivalent to US$64.07 million – making it the largest jackpot ever offered in any Australian lottery.

On June 30th 2009, the Oz Lotto produced another record when the jackpot reached a massive AUS$106.5 Million and was won by 2 lucky ticket holders - one from Queensland and one from South Australia.

The biggest overall lottery win for a single ticket holder to date in Australia was a Powerball win of AUS$58.7 million which was scooped in Melbourne by 4 work colleagues in June 2008.

How Are Jackpots Paid?

All Australian lottery prizes including the OzLotto jackpot are paid as tax free cash lump sums.

You will need to make your claim within 12 months of the draw taking place before your ticket would become invalid.

If you have won a jackpot, you can collect your winnings after a 14 day validation period that ends following the draw. You will need to present your wining ticket at the Australian lotto HQ of the state where you purchased the ticket.

If you have won any other prize, you can normally claim this at the retailers the day after the draw has taken place. Retailers in different states have various cash payout limits but generally any win up to A$500 should be paid thre and then with higher amounts depending upon cash availability.

Of course, if you have purchased your lottery tickets from an online ticket agent such as TheLotter or OzLotteries, you will not need to be concerned with the above, as your agent will take care of all these details for you and ensure that you get your payment as soon as possible when you play lottery online with them.

Where The Money Goes

Proceeds and revenue from Australian lottery games including this one benefit many good causes right across the country.

Each individual state will decide exactly where the money goes according to its own criteria with common organizations to benefit being community groups, charities, public hospitals, sporting organizations and arts groups.