Saturday Lotto
99% of division 1 winners had to share it
The typical winner got $1.2M.
Smallest: $255,097 each, when 20 winners split $5.1M (19 Apr 2025).
Most shared: 21 winners split $20.0M, $952,381 each (27 Jul 2024).
Lottery odds in perspective
Jackpot odds are numbers too big for anyone to picture. So we've turned them into coin tosses and packed MCGs instead. Keep scrolling and you'll see what winners actually get paid, and what years of playing really cost you.
Weekday Lotto: 1 in 8,145,060
That's the chance one game wins division 1. It's the same every draw, whatever numbers you pick.
As likely as calling
23 coin tosses
in a row, and getting every one right
Like picking one seat in
81 full MCGs
100,024 seats each, and only one is yours
Playing one game every draw
52,212 years
on average, before you win division 1 once
Chance in 50 years of play
1 in 1,045
one game every draw (156 draws a year)
This square is 10,000 tickets. The orange one is yours.
Every possible Weekday Lotto ticket would fill 815 squares like this one. Only one ticket in all of them wins division 1.
Winning any prize at all is far more likely, about 1 in 85 games. But most of those prizes are worth less than the game cost you. See what a game is worth on average.
The odds ladder
Every prize in every game, on one scale. Each step up the ladder is 10 times harder to win.
Swipe the chart sideways to see every game.
The big dots are each game's jackpot (division 1). The small dots are the lower divisions. "Heads" means tossing a coin and getting heads that many times in a row. Hover over a dot for its exact odds.
Someone wins, so why not me?
In the last 12 months, 94 people won Weekday Lotto division 1. To get there, about 930 million games were played.
Division 1 winners
94
in 157 draws
Games played
930 million
estimated from how many won the lowest prize
Games for each winner
9.9 million
the exact odds are 1 in 8.1 million
Winners keep popping up because so many people play. The odds are as long as ever. Each of those 94 winners was one game among millions that didn't win.
| Game | Division 1 winners | Games played | Per winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday Lotto | 291 | 2.5 billion | 8.5 million |
| Weekday Lotto | 94 | 930 million | 9.9 million |
| Oz Lotto | 18 | 797 million | 44 million |
| Powerball | 24 | 2.0 billion | 84 million |
| Set for Life | 20 | 646 million | 32 million |
Covers the last 12 months of draws. Games played are estimated from the number of winners of each draw's most-won prize, divided by its exact chance. In any one year a game can run a bit luckier or unluckier than its odds. Over many years it evens out.
Every Weekday Lotto prize, honestly
Most wins are small prizes, and lots of them pay back less than the game cost.
| Division | Odds | Avg paid |
|---|---|---|
| 16 winning numbers | 1 in 8,145,060every 52,212 years | $1.0M |
| 25 winning numbers + 1 supplementary | 1 in 678,755every 4,351 years | $6,972 |
| 35 winning numbers | 1 in 36,689every 235 years | $581 |
| 44 winning numbers | 1 in 733every 5 years | $33 |
| 53 winning numbers + 1 or 2 supplementary | 1 in 297every 99 weeks | $19 |
| 61 or 2 winning numbers + 2 supplementary | 1 in 144every 48 weeks | $15 |
Add it all up and an average Weekday Lotto game pays back about 36c in prizes, whatever it cost you. Of that, 12c is the jackpot, which almost nobody wins. The other 24c comes from the smaller prizes.
Where each dollar you spend goes
- never comes back as prizes
- comes back as smaller prizes, to someone
- goes toward the jackpot
This is out of every $1 you spend, on average, using what winners were really paid. "Never comes back" is the share that goes to the operator, the shops that sell tickets and the government.
Averages are what winners were actually paid since the game took its current format, so shared jackpots and big ones count the way they really fell. Division 1 averages swing up and down with the size of recent jackpots.
Jackpot fever
Big jackpots draw crowds. Your odds stay exactly the same, but the jackpot is more likely to be split.
Why a big jackpot gets people spending more.
Oz Lotto · Powerball
| Jackpot | Games played | Won | Winner gets |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2M | 5.7 million | 9% | $1.9M |
| $5M | 9.8 million | 14% | $4.6M |
| $10M | 15 million | 21% | $8.9M |
| $20M | 22 million | 30% | $16.8M |
| $30M | 29 million | 37% | $24.1M |
| $50M | 39 million | 46% | $37.3M |
| $80M | 52 million | 56% | $54.6M |
| $100M | 59 million | 61% | $64.9M |
At a $100 million jackpot, about 59 million Oz Lotto games are played: 10 times as many as at $2 million. That makes it 61% likely someone wins, and the same 61% chance that a winner has to share it. Your own game is still 1 in 62,891,499.
Games played are estimated from each past draw's winners, then matched against the jackpot size. "A winner gets" allows for sharing with the other winners that many games would turn up.
Division 1 isn't always a fortune
The jackpot in the ad gets split between everyone who wins it.
Oz Lotto
34% of division 1 winners had to share it
The typical winner got $15.0M.
Smallest: $3.0M each (10 Jan 2023).
Most shared: 3 winners split $97.9M, $32.6M each (26 Dec 2023).
Powerball
36% of division 1 winners had to share it
The typical winner got $24.0M.
Smallest: $3.0M each (14 Jun 2018).
Most shared: 4 winners split $80.0M, $20.0M each (4 Sep 2025).
Counts every division 1 win since each game took its current format.
Your chances over time
Play for years and the odds hardly move. The cost does.
Games played
Chance of ever winning division 1
Prizes you'd expect to win
almost all in the lowest divisions
Every game side by side
| Game | Division 1 | Any | Wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday Lotto | 1 in 8.1M | 1 in 42 | 156,636 yrs |
| Weekday Lotto | 1 in 8.1M | 1 in 85 | 52,212 yrs |
| Oz Lotto | 1 in 62.9M | 1 in 50 | 1,209,452 yrs |
| Powerball | 1 in 134.5M | 1 in 44 | 2,586,354 yrs |
| Set for Life | 1 in 38.3M | 1 in 50 | 104,988 yrs |
The odds are exact, worked out from each game's current rules. Buy 10 games a draw and you get 10 times the chance, for 10 times the money.
Lotto myths, tested on every draw
Why hot numbers, lucky streaks and "due" wins feel so real.
Myth: "Hot numbers keep coming up"
Before every past draw, we took the 6 numbers drawn most often in the 50 draws before it. Then we checked how many of them came up next. If hot numbers really stayed hot, they'd beat chance.
| Game | Drawn | By chance | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday Lotto | 1,539 | 1,547 | Chance |
| Weekday Lotto | 2,392 | 2,386 | Chance |
| Oz Lotto | 1,349 | 1,369 | Chance |
| Powerball | 1,176 | 1,219 | Chance |
| Set for Life | 4,309 | 4,369 | Chance |
Myth: "That number is due"
Before every past draw, we took the 6 numbers that had gone the longest without coming up. If a number could be "due", these would turn up more often than chance.
| Game | Drawn | By chance | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday Lotto | 1,598 | 1,547 | Chance |
| Weekday Lotto | 2,330 | 2,386 | Chance |
| Oz Lotto | 1,394 | 1,369 | Chance |
| Powerball | 1,249 | 1,219 | Chance |
| Set for Life | 4,399 | 4,369 | Chance |
The balls have no memory. A number that hasn't come up for months has exactly the same chance as one drawn last week. "Same as chance" means any gap is about the size luck alone would give you.
Myth: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 will never come up"
It's exactly as likely as any other combination. The real catch is the other way round. Thousands of people play patterns like that, so if it ever won, the jackpot would be split thousands of ways. Check how popular your numbers are.
Myth: "A big jackpot means better odds"
The odds never change. Only the prize does. Bigger jackpots pull in more players, so the jackpot is more likely to be won, and more likely to be shared. See this week's jackpot chances.
Myth: "I've played for years, so I'm due a win"
Every draw starts fresh. Ten years of playing Weekday Lotto every draw gives you a 1 in 5,222 chance of ever winning division 1. And the next draw is still 1 in 8,145,060. Add up what your playing costs you.
Spending more on tickets than you'd like?
The spend check adds up what lotto and other gambling cost you in a year, and what that money could grow to if you saved it instead. Want the exact figure? Keep a private spending diary. Our guides show the tricks that keep people buying.
If gambling is causing problems for you or someone you know, free and confidential help is there 24/7 from Gambling Help Online or on 1800 858 858. Here's how to spot the signs.