Canada Lotto Max Changes Announced for May 2019
Canada Lotto Max players have received an early Christmas present with some exciting changes to the game announced for 11th May 2019. The first draw under the new rules will take place three days later. The lottery is the country’s biggest game, and ticket holders can look forward to bigger jackpots and more draws from the summer time.
What Will Change?
There is currently one Lotto Max draw a week, held on Fridays at 21:00 EST. As part of the overall changes, there will be an additional draw on a Tuesday night, which will double a player’s chances of winning a big prize each week. This also means the jackpots will grow quicker with more draws than ever before.
The game’s jackpot cap is also set to increase, from CA$60 million to CA$70 million. Lotto Max had an initial cap of CA$50 million when the game launched in 2009, before increasing by CA$10 million in 2015. Another rise in the jackpot cap is sure to excite ticket holders further, and players from up and down the country were consulted about their feelings towards the proposed changes before they were confirmed.
There will also be two new prize tiers to play for from May – a Match 4 and Bonus Ball tier and Match 5 and Bonus Ball tier. Players will also be required to pick seven numbers between 1 and 50, instead of 1 to 49. Under the new rules, the odds of matching all seven numbers to win the jackpot will change from 1 in 28,633,528 to 1 in 33,294,800, whilst the overall odds of winning a prize will be 1 in 7 rather than 1 in 6.6.
Cost of Playing Remains the Same
The cost of entering Lotto Max will stay remain the same, costing CA$5 for three sets of seven numbers. The supplementary MaxMillions draw will continue to come into effect when the Lotto Max jackpot reaches CA$50 million, giving players a chance to win more prizes worth CA$1 million each.
It has been a busy few months for lottery players throughout the country after a 28-year-old man from Manitoba became a millionaire for the second time in the space of five months, followed by a Montreal-based player who claimed a CA$1.75 million prize ten months after the Lotto 6/49 draw was held.