What do your lottery tickets look like?

  As there is a 'What does your change look like' topic, I wondered in other countries what lottery tickets you have. Either those for where numbers are drawn from a machine, or instant win scratchcards.
 Here in the UK our lottery 'Lotto' is run by Camelot group and they do both systems, and recently we also have 'The Health Lottery' where proceeds go to health companies; whereas the national lottery gives money to various causes not just health.



 Those scratchcards lower in the first picture are just two of the dozen or so available from shops. The second picture shows how lazy I am as in the national lottery draw of nearly three months ago (Wednesday 22nd May) I got 4 out of 6 numbers, and have not been to a shop to cash it in yet!
 That week paid £103 for four numbers, and winners have six months to claim winnings; after that even if it is a jackpot all unclaimed money goes to the 'good causes'.
 Lottery tickets currently cost £1 per draw and there are two draws per week; it is going up in price soon to £2 per draw and some people think when it does that they will no longer buy tickets.

 Apart from Lotto the four other lotteries are: Hot Picks, Plus 5, ThunderBall, EuroMillions.

Nice. Thank you!

New Zealand tickets are very similar to the UK



Lotto shops have standard lotto (6 numbers and the bonus) and a powerball option (A number 1 to 9) which takes a jackpot from about $1 million first division to a prize between $4 and $44 million. It often takes weeks to rollover given our small population and there a must win draws. If still not won after a certain point, it drops to Division 2, although some times even a division 2 winner can not be found and it drops to division 3.

It costs 70 cents a line and minimum is 4 lines, there are various dips with 10 to 14 lines and with powerball (50 cents extra per line).

Prizes are

Major wins
Div 1 - 6 numbers (No bonus) - pool of $1 million usually 1 to 10 winners
Div 2 - 5 numbers and bonus - usual prize around $10k - usually 10 - 30 winners
Div 3 - 5 numbers (Can't be bonus) - Prize around $500 to $800 - a few hundred winners

Minor Divisions
Div 4 - 4 numbers and bonus - usually prize of $30 - $85 about 10k winners
Div 5 - 4 numbers (No bonus) - prize of $25 - $50 about 30k winners
Div 6 - 3 numbers and the bonus - Prize of $15 - $25 around 30- 50k winners
Div 7 - 3 numbers - Free ticket (4 lines only worth $2.80) around 100 - 400k winners

Most people not surprisingly win the bottom 4 divisions, and they really are just joke prizes given the average dip that most people buy is $14 - $35.

Also with Powerball your prizes go up and you receive whatever the division prize is plus this supplement

Powerball
Div 1 - The Jackpot of $4 - $40 million plus 1st div prize (Shared amongst winners, but never more than one person has won division one powerball - chances are 1 in 50 million and we only sell around 2 million tickets or about 15 million lines per week - about 40% have powerball added) - Average 1 winner per 3 months.

Div 2 - Usually an additional $30k (This prize is struck infrequently and some weeks - no one wins it, rarely must win draws the Jackpot is shared by these winners) average 3 to 7 people a week but 0 - 15 recorded.

Div 3 - Usually a few thousand dollars and its won by 5 - 25 people per week. One time a must win powerball jackpot fell to this group and they each got around $500k extra

Div 4 - About $200 more (Maybe 500 winners)
Div 5 - $50 - $100 (A few thousand
Div 6 - $30 - $50 (5k?)
Div 7 - Always $15 in addition to the free ticket (20k)

Non powerball ticket and a scratchy

Also we have strike as another add on. This game is a minor garnish and was introduced before powerball

Strike
The first four numbers drawn must be in order on your ticket - so if they 32, 4, 15 and 9 your strike ticket must have them in that order. If your line is 32, 15, 9, 4 you only get strike one. Cost is 70c per line and tickets are always 4 lines.

Strike Four - $100k Jackpots each week - usually won within in 4 weeks - 1 winner mostly.
Strike Three - $800 supposedly usually about $500 (3 of the 4 numbers must be in order) - 50 to 100 win
Strike Two - $80 supposedly, usually $25 to $60 around 1000 winners
Strike One - Free line (Yes one 70 cent line) - people usually don't bother redeeming it - 100k winners or more

Strike is not popular as the payouts are quite small and its generally hard to win very much cash at all.

Draws are twice weekly (Wednesday and Saturday) It started in 1987 and went online in 2017 as well as physical sales at counters like this



There is also a game called Bullseye, in which it costs $2 to guess a number from 00000 to 99999 and each day a number is drawn and you are paid according to how close your number is to theirs. Its not very popular and I now little about it.

Scratch and win tickets known as Instant Kiwi are also run by the NZ Lotteries Commission which runs Lotto and all its sub games like Powerball, Strike and Bullseye.



Popularly known as Scratchies, they made their appearance in 1989 after deregulation (Before 1987, gambling was limited to the races, Golden Kiwi lottery tickets and occasional Art Union lotteries). Originally just a $1 ticket offering a top prize of $10k, the tickets did well and it was a problem when a 4 year old child spent $100 on them and scratched away they made an age restriction of 16 and then 18.

The series expanded in the 1990s to $2 tickets with more complex games and prizes of up to $25k. Then in 1994 a $5 ticket (Large format) came out offering a top prize of $100k, in 1997 the $3 crossword came out with a more skilful way of scratching rather than just rubbing off the scratchy shit, you had to match words or numbers with the "Bingo" ones.

Over time $4 and $10 tickets were added with higher prizes, there are also occasional $15 and $20 cards with prizes up to $1 million. However they don't do that well as casino and pokie gambling is big here along with legalised sports gambling and online casinos.

The shape and format of our scratchies is similar to the UK, (Printed by the same people in the Netherlands I believe), except the £ becomes $. So a 1 pound ticket is similar size and shape to a $1 ticket, however our prizes are smaller, so the £10k win becomes $10k win and as you know a Kiwi $ is only worth 50p.

All are sold in purple liveried shops inside supermarkets, general stores and stationery stores



You can see Powerball posters, a section to choose your own Lotto/Powerball and strike numbers, with scratch and win tickets on the counter behind glass, computers are behind then and these will select numbers for "Dip" tickets which are the best sellers. Usually packages of Lotto and Scratchies are offered (Never at a discount) but offered as a convenience option.

Gambling is a serious issue in New Zealand, especially amongst the poor and brown populations and Lotto is good at controlling gambling issues. It has suffered in popularity as you have to wait for draws and not get the instant gratification the online and casino gambling offers.

A lot of interesting information! Thank you

I got this the other day - very nice ...

This is a lottery ticket in Thailand. Approximately how it works is this. There is a 6 digit number at the top. Every single combination is printed 5 times over. You can buy a 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100% stake in the prize. There are 2 digits on the right middle that if those numbers come up you can win a very small prize. The interesting thing is that since the numbers are all preprinted and distributed all over Thailand, you can only buy a certain number combination based on where that ticket ends up getting sent. For example, the pictured ticket had been sent to a lottery salesman in Bangkok. People in Phuket would not have had the chance to buy that combination. I'm not sure if the distribution method effects the odds but I do know that it is impossible to buy the winning combination if that ticket is not sold in your geographic area.