Background to the New Zealand Lotto System

Lotto is played on boards consisting of numbers 1 to 40. A player chooses six numbers from each board they play on. Each number may be chosen only once. A player is required to play at least four boards but may choose more than this. Boards cost fifty cents each. So the minimum cost per game is $2.00

For instance to play a minimum of four boards a player might select the following numbers.

 
Board A.  {1,4,5,21,25,40}
Board B. {2,4,6,7,12,15}
Board C. {7,12,15,26,25,30}
Board D. {21,24,25,33,35,37}

The Lotto game is televised live each Saturday night where six balls are rolled from a barrel of forty. Each ball has a number on it from one to forty. Finally a seventh ball is rolled and this is called the bonus number. (More about this later). If any of the above Boards A to D match the numbers on the balls from the barrel then the player wins the big prize.

This is different from the lotto as played in bingo halls where numbers are drawn until a player wins a prize. Only Six balls are drawn (plus the bonus number) for any televised game. There is no guaranteed winner.

Now there is more than one prize winnable and they are divided into divisions and worked out as follows:

 
 Division One - Six winning numbers 
 excluding the bonus number.
 
 Division Two - Five winning numbers plus 
 the bonus number.
 
 Division Three - Five winning numbers 
 excluding the bonus number.
 
 Division Four - Four winning numbers 
 excluding the bonus number.
 
 Division Five - Three winning numbers plus the 
 bonus number.
 

The Bonus Number

The seventh ball rolled from the barrel is called the bonus number. Players only select six numbers on their game board so the bonus number serves the purpose of making the odds a little more in the players favour. If the player can successfully pick the bonus number (because it matches any of the six numbers he has chosen on his game board) with three or five other matching numbers then he will have won Division Two or Five.

Now the Prize Pool is divided up as follows

 
 Division One - 35 %
 Division Two - 5 %
 Division Three - 12.5 %
 Division Four - 27.5 %
 Division Five - 20 %
 

Back to my Lotto Index Page
Back to my Home Page