Canadian Lotto 649 Jackpot Reaches $22 million
It's no secret that Canadians love lotteries, particularly lottery games
which are played and enjoyed nationwide like Lotto 6/49, a lotto game
that has grabbed the media spotlight this week as tonight's draw (Wednesday,
March 10) will be for a whopping rollover jackpot of CAN$22 million.
Despite the fact that droves of Lotto 6/49 fans descended on lottery outlets
across Canada ahead of last Saturday's draw - which boasted a $16 million
jackpot - a winning lottery ticket remained elusive. So with another $6 million
added to the pot, lottery outlets will no doubt do even brisker business today.
Although the U.S. boasts the biggest single lottery jackpot payouts (due to its
sheer number of lottery players), what's great about Canadian lotteries
is that they are untaxed. This means that if a single Lotto 6/49 ticket holder
wins tonight's jackpot, he or she can enjoy every cent of their $22 million
windfall.
And this is what makes Canada such a lottery-friendly nation, the fact that the
taxman cannot touch a citizen's winnings. Lotto 6/49 is one of the most popular
lottery games in Canada not only because a single line of numbers only costs $2,
but because draws are held bi-weekly - on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
As its name suggests, Lotto 6/49 is played with a grid of numbers from 1 to 49. Players pick six numbers and hope that those numbers are drawn in the applicable draw, where 6 numbers are randomly drawn along with a bonus ball. If they match their six numbers with the drawn six numbers, the jackpot is theirs.
If their Lotto 6/49 ticket matches five of the winning six numbers as well as the bonus number, they don't win the jackpot but the second biggest cash prize which can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so the payout structure continues down until the minimum payout of two number plus the bonus.
One of the ways that Lotto 6/49 fans help maximize their chances of winning is to join lottery syndicates, where everyone contributes money to a central 'kitty' which is then used to buy tickets. This allows players to have access to far more tickets for their money, although they obviously have to share all winnings.
