How much does the average Canadian spend on the lottery?

It varies a lot by household. Statistics Canada's Survey of Household Spending put the average yearly spend on games of chance at about $111 for the lowest-income households and $256 for the highest. People tend to under-report, so the real numbers run higher.

What are the odds of winning the lottery in Canada?

The Lotto Max jackpot odds are 1 in 33,294,800, and matching all six Lotto 6/49 numbers is 1 in 13,983,816, according to OLG. The odds are fixed by the math of the draw, so buying extra tickets only nudges a number that is already astronomically large.

Is playing the lottery a waste of money?

As occasional entertainment, no. As a savings or retirement plan, yes. On average only about half of lottery spending returns to players as prizes, and most of that goes to a few big winners. If you play regularly hoping to get ahead, the same money saved would serve you better.

Where does lottery money go in Canada?

Roughly half of ticket sales are paid back as prizes. The rest covers retailer commissions and the cost of running the games, then flows to provincial governments as revenue that funds services like health care and community programs. The exact split varies by province and game.

Is there a way to get into a draw without buying a ticket?

Yes. Prize-linked savings apps like Lodavo give you free weekly draw entries based on what you save in your own bank account. There's no ticket to buy and no money moved into the app, so you keep all your savings and still get a shot at a prize.

Can you actually win real money with Lodavo?

Yes. Every week a member wins a guaranteed prize of at least $100, and the draw pays up to $10,000, by Interac e-Transfer or bank transfer. Your savings stay in your own Canadian bank the whole time. You can see past results on the winning numbers page.

How Much Do Canadians Spend on Lottery Tickets?

Canadians spend close to $10 billion on lottery tickets every year. About half of all adults buy at least one annually, usually with a Saturday jackpot in mind. So how much do Canadians spend on lottery tickets, where does all that money go, and is it actually worth it? The spending is real and the odds are brutal. And it turns out there’s a way to get that same thrill of a draw without handing over a dollar.

How much do Canadians spend on lottery tickets?

Canadians spend close to $10 billion on lottery tickets a year. Provincial lotteries outside Quebec sold $8.9 billion worth in 2023, and Loto-Québec adds close to another $1 billion in lottery games. Lottery and raffle tickets are the most common form of gambling in the country. About 51.8% of Canadians aged 15 and up bought at least one in the past year, according to Statistics Canada (opens in a new tab). More recent provincial tracking points the same way: about 65% of Ontario adults bought a ticket in the past 12 months, and roughly 1 in 4 are weekly players, per OLG’s lottery player tracking (opens in a new tab) for the year ending March 2024.

Per household the spending is smaller but steady. Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending put the average household’s outlay on games of chance (the category that includes lottery tickets) at roughly $111 a year for the lowest-income quintile and $256 for the highest. People also tend to under-report what they spend on gambling, so the real numbers run a little higher. Spread across a year of $5 scratch tickets and the odd Lotto Max line, a casual habit adds up to a few hundred dollars before you’ve thought much about it.

What are your actual odds of winning?

The odds of winning the Lotto Max jackpot are 1 in 33,294,800. For Lotto 6/49, matching all six numbers comes in at 1 in 13,983,816. Those numbers are set by the math of the draw, so buying a few extra tickets barely changes them. You are far more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than to hit either jackpot.

Game	Odds of winning the jackpot
Lotto Max	1 in 33,294,800
Lotto 6/49 (all six numbers)	1 in 13,983,816

Source: OLG PlaySmart (opens in a new tab).

It helps to be clear-eyed about what those odds mean. A 1 in 33 million chance is so small that whether you buy one ticket or ten, your realistic expectation of winning the top prize is, in practical terms, still zero. The fun is real. The expected payout is not.

Where does your lottery money actually go?

Roughly half of every dollar spent on a Canadian government lottery is paid back out as prizes. The rest covers retailer commissions, the cost of running the games, and a net contribution to provincial revenue, which helps fund things like hospitals and community programs. So for every $2 you spend on tickets, about $1 comes back to players as prizes overall, and that pool is shared between a few big winners and a lot of small ones.

That last part matters. Because a handful of jackpots take up so much of the prize pool, the typical player gets back far less than the average suggests. Most tickets just lose. That isn’t a knock on anyone who enjoys the occasional flutter. It’s the design: a lottery has to pay out less than it takes in, or it couldn’t fund the prizes and everything else.

Why do we keep buying tickets anyway?

If the odds are this bad, why do half of us still play? Because a ticket buys something real and human: the fun of imagining, even just until the draw, that your money worries are gone. For a couple of dollars you get to picture the mortgage paid off and your notice handed in. That little hit of what-if is worth something, which is why “just don’t play” misses the point. Surveys have repeatedly found that a meaningful share of Canadians count on a lottery win as part of their financial plan, and that says less about math than about how far out of reach a secure future can feel.

The catch is that the daydream and the spending come bundled together. You can’t buy the hope without buying the ticket, and the ticket is where the money leaks out. So the real question is whether you can keep the daydream and stop the leak.

Is playing the lottery worth it?

For a few dollars of entertainment now and then, that’s your call, and there’s nothing wrong with it. The math only turns against you when a small weekly spend becomes something you lean on. Here’s what the same money looks like bought as tickets versus simply kept.

	Buying lottery tickets	Saving the same money
What it costs you	$5 to $20+ a week, spent	Nothing; the money stays yours
What you keep	Only what you don’t spend	Everything you set aside
Odds of a big win	About 1 in 14 to 33 million per draw	Not applicable, but the savings are certain
After a year of $10 a week	A few small wins at most, no jackpot	$520 saved, plus any interest

Ten dollars a week is about $520 a year. Spent on tickets, most of it is gone and the jackpot stays a fantasy. Saved, that’s $520 you still have, and it’s the start of an emergency fund or a trip. The lottery is entertainment, and like any entertainment you’re paying for the experience, not making an investment. The trouble starts when the two get confused.

How to get the thrill of a draw without losing your money

The pull of the lottery isn’t really the ticket. It’s those few seconds of “what if” while the numbers come up. Prize-linked savings keeps that feeling and takes out the cost. With Lodavo, you save in the bank account you already have, and the more you save the more free entries you earn into a weekly draw, with a chance to win up to $10,000 and a guaranteed prize of at least $100 going to a member every single week. You never buy a ticket, and you never move money into Lodavo. Your savings stay in your own Canadian bank, connected read-only, earning whatever they already earn.

The difference from a lottery is the part that counts: when the draw is done, you still have all of your money. Win or lose, your balance is intact and a little bigger than last week. It’s a draw with no losing ticket. If you’re wondering whether that makes it a form of gambling, the short answer is no, and we walk through exactly why on our is prize-linked savings gambling explainer. For the bigger picture, including how the model has worked in the US and Canada, our guide to prize-linked savings in Canada goes deeper, and you can see every past draw on the winning numbers page.

Canadians will spend billions more on lottery tickets this year, and a lot of it will buy a few seconds of hope and not much else. You don’t have to choose between the fun of a draw and keeping your money. Save a bit each week, get your free entries, and let the worst case be that you simply saved.

Ready to swap the losing ticket for a real shot? Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and earn your first free entries just by saving this week.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.