Everyone in the United Kingdom is well aware of The National Lottery. It’s been around since 1994 and has contributed a massive amount of money to good causes. Allwyn has now taken over the licence for the lottery from Camelot, from 2024. Expectations are for those contributions to double under new leadership. Plus, that takeover is now expected to go much smoother with Camelot agreeing to a buyout from Allwyn. Various other changes will likely be on the horizon for the UK’s lottery with Allwyn in charge. Yet this is not the world’s only lottery. They exist in many countries around the globe.
What are the biggest worldwide lotteries, according to ticket sales? The jackpot amount that a lottery offers doesn’t mean that it is the biggest one by default. Determining the biggest lotteries in the world requires a look at various information. Companies with a significant market share and other features stand out more and it makes sense to rate them on their market value, for that reason. Let’s have a look at what the world’s biggest lotteries look like.
California State Lottery
In 1985, the California State Lottery launched. This came about following voters choosing to authorise it in Proposition 37. Through it, players can access a range of games, including number draws, scratchcards et al. Earnings from the lottery provide supplementary funding for public education.
The Lottery Act of 1984 came about as a way of providing more money to schools. This would occur without the imposition of extra taxes. In accordance, the lottery had to provide at least 34% of its revenues to public education. Another 50% of the revenue is payable back to the public in the form of prizes. The remaining 16% goes towards administration costs, salaries and so on.
The California State Lottery comes with the motto ‘imagine the possibilities’. One player from The Golden State secured a Powerball jackpot of $2.04 billion in November 2022. That’s pretty much more than anyone could imagine winning on the lottery. Throughout its years of operation, the lottery has raised over $26.6 billion (£22.55 billion) for education.
China Welfare Lottery
1987 saw the launch of the China Welfare Lottery. It serves as one of the two legal lotteries in mainland China, with the other being the China Sports Lottery. The Welfare Lottery is in place to boost the health and happiness of underprivileged people. It features games like Double Colour Ball, Seven Lottery and Fucai 3D. A part of the money from every ticket sale goes towards funding welfare projects. These are in place across China, meaning that the money goes very far.
In its first 30 years of operation, the lottery gained ¥1.6 trillion from ticket sales. This includes supporting the elderly of the country, and the disabled and vulnerable. Back when the company started operating, it had its base in Shijiazhuang. People bought tickets totalling tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars each year. Now, annual ticket sales surpass ¥200 billion (£23.67 billion) on an annual basis.
During the same 30 years, over 300,000 social welfare projects have benefitted. It also helped to create more than 400,000 jobs across China. Today, it remains as China’s oldest running lottery.
Earlier on in November, a story broke about a man winning a huge jackpot on the lottery. The multi-million-dollar payout saw him hide the money from his wife and children. This, he said, would be the case until he figures out what to do with the funds. Claiming his prize under the pseudonym of Mr. Li, he turned up in a yellow mascot costume to collect his prize. When asked about not telling his family, he said:
“I didn’t tell my wife and children, because I was afraid that they would be too inflated and would not work or work hard in the future”.
El Gordo Spanish Lottery
El Gordo is a name that actually refers to the grand prize in all Spanish lotteries. Yet in the English-speaking media, it refers to the top-tier of the Spanish National Lottery. This lottery has taken place every year since 1812. It is also known as the Spanish Christmas Lottery. Every year on December 22, this lottery draw takes place. It remains as Spain’s biggest and most popular draw of the year.
Further to this, it is the second-longest running lottery in the world. Lottery draws even took place during the Spanish Civil War. After the Republican government was overthrown, the lottery continued in Francoist Spain, too.
In 2022, 180 million pre-printed €20 tickets have been on offer to sell. This means that there is €2.52 billion dedicated as prize money. That equates to 70% of ticket sales. The maximum amount for the El Gordo prize is €720 million. Last year, the €4,000,000 El Gordo prize paid out to every series of number 86148.
EuroMillions
The EuroMillions lottery was bound to be on this list. It offers tickets in several countries, so there is more chance of bigger sales. Players need to match seven correct numbers to win the jackpot prize. Launched in February of 2004, three countries took part to begin with. They were France, Spain and the United Kingdom. By October of that year, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland also sold tickets.
Draws take place every Tuesday and Friday night at 20:45 CET in Paris. It costs €2.50 or £2.50 for a standard line on a EuroMillions ticket. All prizes, including the jackpot, are tax-free for most of the participating countries. The only exceptions are in Switzerland, Portugal and Spain.
Players in a few other countries can also buy tickets for the draws. They include Andorra, French overseas regions, the Isle of Man, Liechtenstein and Monaco. The largest jackpot paid out from the EuroMillions occurred on July 19, 2022. This saw a player take home €230 million. Those funds went to a UK-based ticket holder. When it comes to the distribution of funds from the ticket sales, 50% goes to the winners. A total of 28% goes to charitable causes, while 12% (in the UK) goes to the Government.
EuroJackpot
It’s not only the EuroMillions that serves many countries, either. The EuroJackpot lottery does the same thing. This serves as a transnational European lottery, which launched in March of 2012. At current, the countries participating in it are:
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- Germany
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- The Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
Jackpots in this lottery begin at €10,000,000. They can then roll over up to €120,000,000. Tickets cost €2 per line to buy (or €3 in Lithuania as there is an extra ‘Joker’ feature). Players need to match five correct numbers from 50 to win, as well as two others from a set of 12. It features 12 tiers of prizes.
Draws for this lottery take place every Tuesday and Friday at 21:00 in Helsinki. Winning ticket evaluation takes place in Germany and Denmark. The game’s highest jackpot possibility hit for the very first time in July of 2022. Nobody won in that draw on the 19th, but one player from Denmark did in the following draw. To date, the countries with the biggest number of notable wins are:
- Germany (58)
- Finland (21)
- Denmark (10)
- Norway (6)
- Spain (6)
- Sweden (6)
- Poland (5)
Spain is the only country to offer tickets for both the EuroMillions and EuroJackpot.
Mega Millions
The United States of America has its own multi-jurisdictional lottery, too. Tickets for the Mega Millions draw are available in 45 of the 50 states. People in the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands can buy tickets, too. The first draw for this lottery took place in 2002. In its initial stages, it was only offered in six states. As is common practice in American lotteries, prizes pay out in instalments. Each game costs $2. The largest jackpot won from the Mega Millions stands at $1.537 billion. This occurred in 2018, going to a resident of South Carolina.
Around 50% of all ticket sales goes back to players as prizes. The remaining funds go to retailers, marketing and operations. Different lotteries use the proceeds in different ways. Because of this, jackpots start at $40 million in Mega Millions draws. That proves how vast ticket sales are across the USA.
Powerball
Another American lottery, this one has been the most popular game since 1992. Tickets are on sale in 45 jurisdictions as a shared jackpot game. Up until August of 2021, draws took place twice a week. A third weekly drawing became standard on August 23, 2021. Each play costs $2 or $3 with the optional Power Play. The smallest advertised jackpot for the Powerball is $20 million. It was actually on November 8, 2022, that the largest jackpot in the world came about. This stood at $2.04 billion, and a single ticket holder in California claimed the prize.
Players have the option of receiving wins as a 30-payment annuity or as cash. Altogether, the Powerball has raised $27 billion for good causes across America. 50% of ticket sales go towards funding the prizes. A further 35% of those sales benefit good causes supported by lotteries. The remaining funds go to retailers and operating expenses.
The UK National Lottery
Having been around since 1994, the UK National Lottery serves as a vast lottery in itself. In its early days, it consisted of a single lottery draw from one game. Today, it features several different games, meaning draws take place throughout the week. It has awarded over £86 billion in prize funds, creating over 6,500 millionaires.
On average, over £30 million every week goes to good causes from lottery ticket sales. Those funds reach every part of the UK, with an average of 240 projects per postcode receiving money. That stands at more than £46 billion so far. Of all money spent on lottery games, 53% goes to the prize fund. A 25% part of it gets donated to good causes.
The average percentage return is the share of the ticket sales devoted to prize funds. About 45% of the money spent on tickets will be awarded in prizes. The spread of returns is very wide, influenced by several factors. They change from week-to-week.
Lottery.com Inc.
As of November 8, 2022, the market cap of Lottery.com Inc. stands at $16.89 million (£14.24 million). It is a technology company that operates a mobile lottery platform. Through it, users can buy and manage lottery tickets via their mobile devices. It doesn’t focus on one specific lottery, though. Instead, its users can buy tickets for games like the Powerball and the Mega Millions. Lottery results and the winners are also highlighted on the website of the company.
It comes with several competitive advantages in the online lottery world, too. It offers a proprietary lottery technology platform. Through this, it can offer a secure and convenient online experience for players. Furthermore, it has established partnerships with some of the largest lotteries globally. This means that it gives its customers access to a wide range of such. Due to this being the case, it has built up a loyal customer base. Through Lottery.com, players can get instant results and updates on more than 800 lotteries. These come from over 40 countries. It’s also key to note that the company has a strong marketing and branding strategy.
Many expect the brand to capture extra market share in the future as well. It will thus likely remain as one of the biggest lotteries in the world. Yet it is a collection of lotteries from different countries that make this brand what it is. How about specific lotteries from those countries?