Oz Lotto rolls over to biggest jackpot in more than 14 years
It's just the second time in the game's 30-year history a $90 million prize is on offer.
Australian punters will be looking to ring in the new year with a record-breaking Oz Lotto windfall after the prize pool jackpotted to a whopping $90 million on Tuesday.
It is the first time the Oz Lotto jackpot has reached such a figure in more than 14 years, with The Lott confirming to Yahoo News Australia June 2009 was the only other time in the game's 30-year history a $90 million division one prize was on offer.
With last night's $70 million prize going unclaimed, the final Oz Lotto draw of 2023 will also be the second-biggest prize offered by any Australian lottery game this year, surpassed only by Powerball's $100 million jackpot in August.
No player has held all seven winning numbers needed to claim the division one prize in the past nine draws – but at least one lucky punter will be hoping to buck that trend on Boxing Day.
While no one managed to scoop the top prize last night, there were 12 division two winners who each claimed $90,505.40, according to Lott officials.
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The Lott spokesperson Anna Hobdell said the corporation behind the game expects immense interest in the $90 million draw, with as many as one-in-three Australians buying a ticket.
"As this is the second-biggest jackpot offered by Oz Lotto in three decades, we’re expecting it to be busy in-store and online in the lead-up to next Tuesday’s draw," she said. "The idea of unboxing this life-changing jackpot on Boxing Day just days before 2024 arrives is sure to get Aussies dreaming."
According to Hobdell, this week's jackpot saw the peak of sales at 6.35pm on the evening of the draw when more than 4,113 tickets were sold in a minute.
Players are urged to register their entries to a player card or online account so they can be immediately contacted should they be lucky enough to win big.
How to give yourself the best chance of winning big
Despite the odds of winning an Oz Lotto division one prize being roughly 1 in 62.8 million, earlier this week Lott officials shared with Yahoo the luckiest numbers to date.
According to Lott spokesperson Matt Hart, the most frequently drawn winning numbers are 5, 19, 21 and 47, while the least frequently drawn are 26, 15, 25 and 2. He also shared with Yahoo that all but one of the Oz Lotto division one winning entries have been QuickPick entries, which is where the lottery terminal does all the heavy lifting and picks the numbers for you.
While all numbers have the same probability of being chosen, it can pay to steer clear of common patterns, says Professor John Croucher at Macquarie University’s Business School.
"More people choose patterns, so there will be more winners and that's divided into a prize pool," the statistician told Yahoo. "So you will get less dividend or a lower dividend than if you just pick random numbers. So try not to pick a pattern."
If gambling is a problem for you, go to Gambling Help Online or call 1800 858 858.
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