One lucky Ontario lottery player is going to win a guaranteed prize of $68 million on Wednesday. And, with all white balls removed in the Lotto 6/49 game, someone has to win as just the gold jackpot ball remains.
Notably, it’s taken 15 weeks to get to Wednesday’s record-setting jackpot draw.
Here’s why Wednesday’s (Sept. 27) Canada lottery online draw is set at $68 million and how you can play Lotto 6/49.
How Lotto 6/49 works
The Lotto 6/49 game and its Gold Ball Draw is a little complicated, so follow along as PlayCanada explains it.
The Classic Draw and jackpot
Each Wednesday and Saturday, Lotto 6/49 is drawn.
To play, a ticket buyer gets a set of six Classic Draw numbers from 1-49. And, each ticket costs $3.
That night, six numbers are drawn by the Ontario Lottery between 1-49. If you match all six, you win the Classic Jackpot of $5 million. Finally, that jackpot will be split among all the players that match all six numbers for that day’s drawing.
The Gold Ball Jackpot draw number
As well, each Lotto 6/49 ticket also comes with a unique 10-digit Gold Ball Draw Number.
With each drawing, one Gold Ball Draw winner is picked giving out a separate jackpot of at least $1 million.
Notably, each Gold Ball Draw ticket number is given out randomly and can’t be selected by the customer. Specifically, this is to ensure that nobody has the same number for each drawing and that a guaranteed winner is selected.
Gold Ball Jackpot progressively grows
Further, the Gold Ball Jackpot Draw actually starts with 30 balls. Specifically, a total of 29 of them are white, with one being gold.
Each white ball represents a $1 million jackpot. And, the gold ball represents the progressive jackpot.
Once the gold ball is drawn, the next Lotto 6/49 drawing starts over again with all 30 balls in the pool. And, the gold ball starts each session with a value of $10 million.
If the gold ball is drawn on the first attempt, then the Gold Ball Jackpot is $10 million and the process starts again the next drawing.
However, each time a white ball is drawn, the gold ball increases in value by $2 million more.
For Wednesday’s drawing, all the white balls have been drawn out before the gold ball, giving it the maximum value of $68 million.
After Wednesday’s drawing, Saturday’s Lotto 6/49 will start the process over again with 29 white balls and a gold ball worth $10 million.
Largest Lotto 6/49 jackpot ever
Notably, Wednesday’s drawing will be the largest Lotto 6/49 jackpot ever.
And, the last Gold Ball jackpot came on June 14. And, that jackpot had grown to $42 million.
Specifically, the largest previous Lotto 6/49 jackpot was $64 million in April. And,, that matched the previous record from 2015.
In honour of the record-setting draw on Wednesday, Gold Ball Heads were all over Toronto and Ottawa this week. They could be seen taking part in everyday activities like having coffee and reading the news.
The Gold Ball Heads will be at ByWard Market in Ottawa and near Union Station in Toronto on Wednesday, handing out prizes ahead of the big drawing.
Many non-jackpot prizes available for Lotto 6/49 drawing
Aside from the jackpots, Lotto 6/49 offers a variety of other prizes based on how many numbers you match. It can range from the $5 million classic draw jackpot to free play.
Note, the odds of winning any prize in the game is 1 in 6.6.
To play, purchase tickets at a participating retailer or online at OLG.ca. Tickets need to be purchased by 10:30 p.m. ET on the day of the drawing.
