For over a decade now, PlayHugeLottos.com has provided you with convenient and secure lottery ticket purchasing services. They strive to bring you the world's most exciting lotteries and with this in mind, they have introduced two new and exciting lotteries that take place down under, in Australia. And to get you started, all registered customers have a voucher in their account which gives you a FREE entry into each of these draws.
OzLotto and Powerball are Australia's two most popular lotteries.
Oz Lotto is a national lottery game, administered by Tattersall's and played on Tuesday nights. It was introduced on 26 February 1994 and promoted as the first fully national Australian lotto game.
Originally, the game was the same as australia's Saturday Lotto, requiring six numbers to be picked out of 45. However, starting 18 October 2005, a seventh number began to be drawn, greatly lengthening the odds of winning Division 1 (close, but not longer, than that of Powerball). In line with this change, branding for Oz Lotto changed in many states, to emphasise the seventh ball (including new names, such as Super 7's Oz Lotto in Tatts regions, and Oz 7 Lotto in Queensland). Due to the introduction of a seventh number, Oz Lotto provides far larger chances of rollovers, and as a result, much higher jackpots. Oz Lotto's starting jackpot is AUD$2,000,000.
Oz Lotto currently holds the record for the largest Australian lotto jackpot prize. Originally guaranteed at $90 million, two winners (from Queensland and South Australia) shared a Division 1 pool of AUD$106,549,984.76 in the draw on 30 June 2009.
Although the draw now requires seven numbers to be selected, the minimum prize level (of 3 winning numbers and one of the supplementary numbers) was unchanged, thus leading to seven prize divisions:
| Division | Winning Numbers Required |
|---|---|
| 1st Division | 7 |
| 2nd Division | 6 + supplementary |
| 3rd Division | 6 |
| 4th Division | 5 + one or both supplementary |
| 5th Division | 5 |
| 6th Division | 4 |
| 7th Division | 3 + one or both supplementary |
| Any Prize |
Powerball (please note that we refer to this lottery as OzPowerball on our site to differentiate from its American counterpart) is a lottery game modelled on the highly successful American Powerball game. The game is administered by Tattersalls, and syndicated to all states through the Australian Lotto Bloc. Draws take place on Thursday nights, with the first draw held on 23 May 1996.
Powerball uses two barrels to determine its winning numbers: five numbers are drawn at random from a barrel (Number Sets) of 45 (standard winning numbers), then one number, the namesake Powerball, is drawn at random from a separate barrel of 45. To win the first division prize the player needs to have all five numbers in their game as well as select the correct Powerball. For coupon entries; the Powerball is selected in a separate box to the winning numbers.
Powerball offers a slightly better odds overall for winning any prize than Saturday Lotto, partly due to its seven-division structure, however its first division is about six times harder to win:
| Division | Required Winning Numbers |
|---|---|
| 1st Division | 5 + Powerball |
| 2nd Division | 5 |
| 3rd Division | 4 + Powerball |
| 4th Division | 3 + Powerball |
| 5th Division | 4 |
| 6th Division | 2 + Powerball |
| 7th Division | 3 |
This is known in New South Wales and South Australia as "Power45", in Queensland and Tatts' states as a "PowerHit", and in Western Australia as a "Powerpik". System entries and guaranteed Powerball options can sometimes be combined.
A major difference between Australian Powerball versus the US game is that the latter was created in part to allow a player to win by matching only one number, if it is the Powerball.
Powerball's largest jackpot prize to date is $80 million, which was shared between two tickets (in Victoria and New South Wales) on 30 July 2009 - only weeks after Oz Lotto set the current record of more than $106 million.
These two games are now available for you to play directly on our sites, and your play credit, Neteller accounts, Moneybookers funds, along with all other payment methods can be used to pay for your entries.
Best of luck from Down Under.
