Australian Lottery Guide - Everything You Need to Know

Sometimes it seems that everywhere you turn, all you hear about are American and European lotteries. It is true that the biggest jackpot are regularly awarded by US Powerball, Mega Millions, and EuroMillions , but lottery fans will be interested in knowing that winning odds are much better Down Under. Australian lotteries are definitely worth playing and the prizes they offer are tax free! Get acquainted with the different games and get ready to win!

Table of Contents:

• Why Are Australian Lotteries Special?

• Which Australian Lottery Has the Best Odds of Winning?

• Are the Odds of Winning Aussie Lotteries Better Than Other Lotteries?

• Is There an Australian Lottery Tax on Winnings?

• Which Australian Lottery Offer the Biggest Starting Jackpot?

• How to Play Australian Lottery Online

• Australia Monday Lotto

• Australia Wednesday Lotto

• Australia Oz Lotto

• Australia Powerball Lotto

• Australia Saturday Lotto

• Special Australia Lotto Draws

• Biggest Australian Jackpots

• Australian Lottery Winners at theLotter

• Australian Lotto – An Abridged History

Why Are Australian Lotteries Special?

There are plenty of reasons to play the lotteries of Australia, especially if you are looking for variety in your game play. Each and every Australian lottery has something special to offer, but they have things in common as well

• Australia has a lottery draw nearly every day of the week.

• Australian lotteries offer some of the best winning odds anywhere.

• Lottery prizes in Australia are all paid out 100% tax-free!

Which Australian Lottery Has the Best Odds of Winning?

While all Australian lotteries give you a pretty good chance of winning prizes, which lottery has the best prize-winning odds? Monday Lotto, Wednesday Lotto, and Saturday Lotto give you the best chance of winning by far, at just 1 in 8,135,060 for all three draws. This is due to these lotteries' smaller guess range and fewer numbers needed to win. If you’re interested in multi-million jackpots with pretty good odds of winning, Oz Lotto might be your new Aussie favourite! With jackpot-winning odds at 1:8,135, and a record payout of AU$111.9 million, this lottery is a great choice for players who want fantastic prizes with a fairly good shot of winning. Australia Powerball may have the lowest odds of winning, but that doesn't stop players from playing this wildly popular US Powerball spin-off

Check the Australian lotto draws above and see which lottery has the best odds.

Are the Odds of Winning Aussie Lotteries Better Than Other Lotteries?

The chances of winning offered by Australian lotteries are much better than many other popular draws across the globe. To see the difference, we will compare the most popular Aussie lotteries with the biggest world lotteries in terms of winning odds.

Lottery	Odds of Winning the Jackpot	Record Jackpot
Saturday Lotto Monday Lotto Wednesday Lotto	1 in 8,145,060	AU$33 million AU$1million AU$1 million
Canada 649	1 in 13,983,816	CAD64 million
France Loto	1 in 19,068,840	€24 million
New Zealand Powerball	1 in 38,383,800	NZ$50 million
Oz Lotto	1 in 62,891,499	AU$111 million
Australian Powerball	1 in 134,490,400	AU$100
EuroMillions	1 in 139,838,160	€220 million
Germany Lotto	1 in 139,838,160	€45 million
US Powerball	1 in 292,201,338	US$2.04 billion
US Mega Millions	1 in 302,575,350	US$1.53 billion
Italy SuperEnalotto	1 in 622,614,630	€209 million

As you can see in the table above, the Australian lotteries come with some of the best chances of winning in the world in terms of their prize to odds ratio! In fact, the Lotto series truly stands out with its 1 in 8,145,060 chances of scooping the first prize. 

Is There an Australian Lottery Tax on Winnings?

Another great advantage of playing Australian lotteries is that your winnings won’t be taxed! This means that whatever amount was advertised as the prize, is yours for the keeping! If you win an Australian lottery prize while playing from outside of Australia, you may be subject to local taxation in your country of residence.

Which Australian Lottery Offers the Biggest Starting Jackpot?

When you play Australia’s biggest lotteries, the initial jackpot prize will start at AU$1 million (approx. €590k) and can go up to a starting top prize of AU$4 million (approx. €2.36 million). While Australia Saturday Lotto may hold the title to the largest starting jackpot of AU$4 million, it’s a set prize that cannot get any bigger. On the other hand, Australia’s Powerball Lotto top prize of AU$3 million and Oz Lotto’s AU$2 million have no jackpot cap and can grow to incredible heights they’re won!

How Do You Play Australian Lottery Online?

While it’s not always possible to go Down Under when you feel like playing an Australian lottery, you can purchase official Australia Lottery tickets online at theLotter from anywhere in the world! Playing online is almost identical to a retailer. You select the lottery you want to play, choose your numbers purchase your ticket, and wait to see if you’ve won. You can either pick your numbers manually, or use the Quick Pick option for a set of random numbers.

Besides being able to play from across the globe, another perk of playing Australian lotteries online is that you can play your favourite games with a subscription or Multi-draw package! Subscribing to a lottery automatically enters into every draw, ensuring that your winning numbers never miss out on a prize. If you’re not 100% sure you want to commit to a subscription, a multi-draw package will enter you into a set number of draws ranging from 5 to 52. At theLotter, you’ll also get up to 25% off your purchase when you use this play option!

Australia Monday Lotto

The first Australian lottery draw of the week takes place on Monday nights. Purchase your tickets now for the next Australia Monday Lotto draw! Monday Lotto guarantees a fixed Division 1 prize of AU$1 million per winner, up to four winners each draw. If there are more than four Division 1 winners, the AU$4 million Division 1 prize pool is divided equally between them.

How Monday Lotto is played

Australia's Monday Lotto is played with a 6/45 format and there are two bonus balls from the main drum that are added to every draw to determine secondary prizes. Check out the Australia Monday Lotto results after every weekly draw to see if you're the Aussie lottery's newest millionaire!

Monday Lotto draws are staged on Mondays at 20:30 local time.

Australia Oz Lotto

The second day of the week is Tuesday and that is when people all over Australia play Oz Lotto. This exciting Aussie draw is responsible for awarding some of the biggest jackpots in Australian lottery history, with jackpot prizes that have exceeded the AU$100 million mark! The draw’s jackpot prize starts at AU$3 million and can go without being won for a maximum of 25 consecutive draws. If there are no winning tickets on the 26th draw, the jackpot money is split between the winners of the next highest prize category. The Oz Lotto jackpot record of AU$111,972,151 million was set on 6 November 2012 and was split between four lucky winners.

How Oz Lotto is played

To play Australia's Oz Lotto, choose seven numbers from a range of 1-47. Oz Lotto features three bonus balls, drawn from the same drum. These balls help determine some of the exciting secondary prizes you can win if you don't claim the jackpot!

Oz Lotto draws are staged on Tuesdays at 20:30 local time.

Check the Oz Lotto results every week to see if you’ll be taking home a huge Australian prize!

Australia Wednesday Lotto

On Wednesday nights, play the Australia Wednesday Lotto! Wednesday Lotto guarantees a fixed Division 1 prize of AU$1 million per winner, up to four winners each draw. If there are more than four Division 1 winners, the AU$4 million Division 1 prize pool is divided equally between them. Wednesday Lotto boasts a jackpot record of AU$6 million, which was set in January 2009 before rule changes that lowered the jackpot limit were made in 2012.

How Wednesday Lotto is played

The Australian Wednesday Lotto is played in the classic 6/45 format. As with many lotteries Down Under, two bonus balls are drawn from the same drum to determine prizes in four of the secondary prize divisions. In total, there are six secondary prizes players can win if they don't capture the jackpot. Be sure to check the Wednesday Lotto results posted on theLotter shortly after every draw. 

Wednesday Lotto draws are staged on Wednesdays at 20:30 local time.

Australia Powerball Lotto

Thursday features the Australia Powerball. This is one of the biggest and most popular lottery games in Australia. The Australian Powerball's top jackpot was an amazing AU$150 million, split between 3 lucky winners on 19 September 2019. Each received a prize of AU$50 million. This jackpot prize set a record not only for Powerball, but it is also the largest lottery prize awarded in Australia to date!

In February 2022, Powerball once again cemented itself as Australia’s biggest lottery when two winning tickets matched an incredible AU$126 million jackpot, which is now Australia’s second-biggest lottery prize! Half of the Powerball prize went to a syndicate made up of 250 Kalgoorlie residents, while the second winner, from West Australia, bagged the entire AU$63 million for himself!

How Australia Powerball Lotto is played

To play Australia Powerball, select 7 numbers out of 35, as well as an additional Powerball from a range of 1-20. There are nine prize divisions. The Powerball jackpot starts at AU$3 million and has no rollover cap. After it reaches AU$10 million, every rollover brings at least another AU$10 million with it, so the potential for gigantic prizes is always huge with this lotto! See if you’ve won a prize from the biggest lottery Down Under by checking the Check the Australia Powerball results after every draw!

Powerball Lotto draws are staged on Thursdays at 20:30 local time.

Australia Saturday Lotto

You can purchase your tickets for the upcoming Saturday Lotto draw any day of the week! Launched in 1972, Saturday Lotto is Australia's longest running lottery and still one of the most popular to date.  This national lottery is known by slightly different names in different parts of the country: Tattslotto, Gold Lotto, X Lotto, Lotto, and Saturday Lotto. No matter what its name may be, this lottery will make your Saturday very exciting.

The starting Saturday Lotto jackpot is AU$5 million and the top prize is often shared by multiple winners. The jackpot record for this super exciting lottery is a whopping AU$47.9 million, set in a Superdraw in April 2008.

The Saturday Lotto is a smart lottery to play when you take into account the lottery odds, jackpot prizes, ticket price, and taxes to determine the lotteries with the best cost-benefit ratio. Yet another reason to play Saturday Lotto!

How Saturday Lotto is played

Australia's Saturday Lotto is played by selecting six numbers from a guess range of 1-45. Two bonus balls are selected from the same drum in the draw and they determine winners of two out of the five secondary prize divisions. Saturday Lotto Superdraws and Megadraws are played in the same format.

Saturday Lotto draws are staged on Saturdays at 20:30 local time.

Check the latest Australia Saturday Lotto results to see if you’ll be ending your week a winner!

Special Australia Lotto Draws

In addition to regular draws, the Australian National Lottery also stage lottery Superdraws on special occasions throughout the year! These special draws offer boosted jackpot prizes and increased secondary prizes at no additional cost to players. Read all about the exciting special draws you can participate in when you play Australia Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Lotto!

Saturday Lotto Superdraw

Seven times a year, the Australia Saturday Lotto stages special Superdraws. Superdraws offer a starting guaranteed jackpot of around AU$20 million and are extremely popular.

Don't miss the next one! Purchase your Saturday Lotto Superdraw tickets already now to guarantee your participation in the upcoming draw.

Once a year, Saturday Lotto stages a Megadraw with an even bigger prize pool. The Megadraw takes place around Christmas/New Year and offers an incredible AU$30 million jackpot prize!

Although Saturday Lotto Superdraws and Saturday Lotto Megadraws do not have jackpot caps, their jackpots are usually split between a large number of winning tickets. According to statistics, there are approximately 14 first-prize winners in each Superdraw. The most winners to ever claim a Megadraw jackpot was 54. They shared the AU$31 million jackpot in 2004. The fewest number of winners was 12, who shared a jackpot of AU$30 million in 2013.

Monday & Wednesday Lotto - Cashcade Celebrations

Lucky for players, special Cashcade draws are staged throughout on selected dates! This celebratory draw offers winners from all prize divisions the chance to claim boosted secondary prizes. In the case of a jackpot rollover during Cashcade promotions, the top prize will automatically roll down and be split amongst winners of Divisions 2 through 6. Winners will not only receive the standard division prize, but also a portion of the draw’s AU$1 million jackpot!

Here’s how the AU$1 million jackpot prize will be distributed across the prize divisions:

Division	Percentage
Division 1	4.2%
Division 2	6.5%
Division 3	18.5%
Division 4	26.3%
Division 5	44.5%

Monday & Wednesday Lotto - Double Your Win

Double Your Win draws equals double the fun for Australian lottery fans! This special draw automatically doubles all Monday Lotto and Wednesday Lotto secondary prize winnings during the promotional period. Double Your Win takes place on special occasions throughout the year, so stay tuned for your chance to win double the money!

Biggest Australian Jackpots

Australian lotteries may not offer the biggest jackpots in the world like those offered by some draws in Europe and the United States, but they are much easier to win! Listed below are the biggest Australian jackpots ever awarded. New records are being set all the time!

Powerball currently holds the title of producing Australia’s biggest lottery prize. The record-breaking AU$150 million jackpot was won by three Australian players in the 19 September 2019 draw. Not only that, but Powerball also boasts the record for awarding an AU$107,575,649 jackpot on 17 January 2019 to a single winner.

Oz Lotto holds the record for the second largest Australian lottery prize ever awarded. In the lotto's draw on 6 November 2012, the top prize was advertised at AU$100 million but ticket sales boosted the jackpot to an amazing AU$111,972,151, which was shared by four winners.

Australian Lottery Winners at theLotter

Here are some of our latest winners of Australian lotteries:

• R.D. from Australia joined theLotter early in 2013 and a short time later won a 3rd division prize of AU$6,427 playing the Australia Powerball on 2 May 2013.

• Less than a year after joining theLotter, O.S. from Russia won the AU$10,602.60 second division prize playing the Saturday Lotto draw on 26 January 2013.

• In the Oz Lotto draw on 8 August 2017, J.W. from Australia won a 3rd division Match 6 prize of AU $7,065. His win came on a 12-line auto-renew multi-draw ticket.

• Just two weeks later, fellow Australian D. R. won AU$22,760 by playing a 10-line systematic form in the Oz Lotto.

• In the Oz Lotto draw on 31 July 2018, a syndicate of 22 of our players from all over the world won an AU$24,937.50 Division Two prize. Read the Oz Lotto syndicate’s story.

• A Malaysian player struck Saturday Lotto luck, not just once, but twice in the span of just two months! The lucky winner first matched a AU$7,812.81 Australia Saturday prize on 20 July 2019. Almost exactly 2 months later, he won another AU$19,279.80 in the 21 September 2019 draw.

• Emirati player D.Z. found his fortune on 8 October 2019 when he won AU$8,118 in Oz Lotto prizes after matching several prize divisions. Less than two years later on 1 June 2021, he claimed another AU$2,236 from the same lottery!

• A single player from New Zealand woke up AU$11,263.80 richer after winning second place in the Australia Saturday Lotto Superdraw of 19 June 2021!

Australian Lotto – an Abridged History

Australia joined the modern lottery world with a television broadcast on 24 June, 1972. The jackpot was a mere AU$50 thousand and the game was actually a raffle. The first non-raffle draw took place in November 1979 with newspapers announcing "Today's the Day to go Lotto!" The first prize was worth a whopping AU$384,975 and the format was 6/40.

Australian lotteries are today played all over Australia and fans from around the world regularly play an Australian lotto online. When they first started, each Australian lottery was run independently and only operated in a specific Australian state. Oz Lotto became the first national game when it launched on 22 February 1994.

A newcomer to the Australian lotto scene is the Set for Life game, introduced with its first draw on 7 August 2015. The game has a 8/37 format and two bonus balls are drawn to determine prizes in some of the seven secondary prize divisions. The game offers 1:38,608,020 odds of winning the jackpot. Unlike other Australian lotteries, this top prize is paid out as a fixed sum of AU$20,000 per month over the course of 20 years. If there are more than four winners of the jackpot, the prize is split evenly between the winners via monthly installments.

Play Australian Lottery Games Online at theLotter

With high chances of winning, incredible secondary prizes, frequent Superdraws, and no taxes on winnings, Australian lotteries deserve to receive as much attention as the leading European and American lotteries, and the great thing is, you can buy lottery tickets to all of these exciting games online!

Pick a day of the week, and purchase your official Australian lottery ticket to any, or all five of our rewarding Aussie lotteries! And if you're a fan of lotteries from Oceania, play NZ lotto Powerball and read our New Zealand Powerball Guide!