Are lottery winnings taxed in Quebec?

No. Lottery winnings aren't taxed in Quebec or federally, so Loto-Québec pays you the full amount with nothing withheld. What is taxable is any interest that money later earns, which gets added to your income and taxed at your marginal rate.

Which Loto-Québec game has the best odds?

For the jackpot, none: big draws like Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 have the longest odds of all. Scratch tickets and smaller games pay out more often, but in small amounts. Over time no game gives the player an edge, because that's how a lottery is built.

Can you get into a draw without buying a ticket?

Yes. A prize-linked savings app like Lodavo gives you free weekly draw tickets for the money you save in your own account. Nothing is bought and nothing is deposited, so you're in the draw with your savings fully intact.

Can you really win money with Lodavo?

Yes. Each week at least one user wins a guaranteed prize of at least $100, and the top prize is $10,000, paid by Interac e-Transfer or bank transfer. Your money never leaves your own Canadian bank, and past results are on the winning numbers page.

How Much Do Quebecers Spend on the Lottery? (2026)

Every year, Quebecers spend close to $3 billion on lottery tickets. It’s the Friday scratch ticket at the corner store, the Saturday Lotto Max line, the small few-dollar ritual that adds up. So how much do Quebecers really spend on the lottery, where does all that money go, and is it worth it? Loto-Québec’s numbers are public, and they’re bigger than you’d think. There’s also a way to get the thrill of a draw without ever losing a cent.

How much do Quebecers spend on the lottery?

Quebecers spend close to $3 billion a year on lottery tickets. In 2025-2026, Loto-Québec paid out a record $1.9 billion in prizes and kept $995.6 million in lottery revenue, which puts total player spending around $2.9 billion. Spread across Quebec’s roughly 7 million adults, that works out to about $400 each, non-players included.

That’s a lot of money for one category. And the lottery is only part of the picture: Loto-Québec also runs the casinos and the video lottery terminals, which pushed its total revenue past $3 billion for the first time in its history (opens in a new tab) last year. Because people tend to under-report what they play, a habit that feels harmless (a scratch ticket here, a line there) adds up to hundreds of dollars over a year before you’ve thought much about it.

Where does Loto-Québec’s money go?

About two-thirds of every dollar wagered comes back to players as prizes. The rest covers retailer commissions and the cost of running the games. Because Loto-Québec is a Crown corporation, its profit flows to the province: across all its operations (lottery, casinos, and video lottery), it returned $1.5 billion to the government in 2025-2026.

Where Quebecers’ lottery money goes (2025-2026)	Amount
Prizes paid to players (a record)	$1.9 billion
Revenue kept (commissions, operations, the province’s share)	$995.6 million
Estimated total player spending	≈ $2.9 billion

There’s a very Quebec loop in that: players fund a good chunk of the public services they also use, since Loto-Québec’s dividend goes straight to the provincial treasury. The higher payout share comes mostly from scratch tickets. The big draws return less: on Lotto Max or 6/49, roughly half of what you spend comes back as winnings. Loto-Québec also puts $36 million a year toward problem-gambling prevention.

What are your real odds of winning?

The odds of winning the jackpot are tiny. On Lotto 6/49, matching all six numbers on the Classic Draw is 1 in 13,983,816. On Lotto Max, even with the new $6 format (opens in a new tab) launched in April 2026, the jackpot is still about 1 in 33 million per $6 play. These numbers are set by the math of the draw, so buying a few more tickets barely moves them.

Game	Odds of winning the jackpot
Lotto 6/49 Classic Draw (all six numbers)	1 in 13,983,816
Lotto Max (2026 format, per $6 play)	1 in 33,446,140

Source: Loto-Québec (opens in a new tab) and PlaySmart (opens in a new tab).

The 2026 Lotto Max overhaul raised the ticket from $5 to $6, added numbers (7 drawn from 52), and created new $100,000 MAXPLUS prizes on every draw. It did improve your chance of winning any prize at all, from 1 in 7 to 1 in 5.8. But the top prize stayed just as far out of reach. One in 33 million is still one in 33 million, whether you play one ticket or ten.

Who plays, and at what cost?

The lottery is by far the most popular form of gambling in Quebec, and for most people it’s occasional entertainment for a few dollars. But the spending isn’t spread evenly. A minority of at-risk players accounts for a large share of the money wagered, and lower-income households put a bigger slice of their budget into it.

According to the portrait of gambling in Quebec (opens in a new tab), moderate-risk and excessive gamblers make up roughly a third of all gambling spending, even though they’re a small fraction of players. None of this is a knock on anyone who buys the odd ticket for fun. It’s just a good reason to keep the lottery on the entertainment side of the ledger, and never to mistake it for a plan to get ahead.

Is the lottery worth it?

There’s nothing wrong with spending a few dollars on a ticket for the fun of it. The trouble starts when the lottery stops being entertainment and turns into a plan, the weekly outlay you’re counting on to fix your finances. Put the two choices side by side: the same dollars played, or the same dollars kept.

$8 a week for a year	Played on the lottery	Kept in your account
Where it goes	Mostly gone, minus the odd small prize	Stays in your own account
Chance at the jackpot	Roughly 1 in 14 to 33 million per draw	None, but the savings are a sure thing
A year later	A few small wins at most	About $416 saved, plus interest and free draw tickets

Eight dollars a week comes to more than $400 a year, roughly what the average Quebec adult feeds into the lottery. Run through the terminal, most of it vanishes and the jackpot stays a daydream. Set aside instead, it’s more than $400 still sitting in your account, the start of an emergency fund or a weekend away. Want to see how that stacks up against the rest of the country? Our piece on how much Canadians spend on lottery tickets has the national picture.

How can you get a weekly draw without spending a cent?

The fun of a draw doesn’t have to come with a cost. That’s the whole idea behind prize-linked savings: you put money aside in the account you already have, and that saving earns you free tickets in a draw. With Lodavo, the more you save, the more chances you get to win, up to $10,000, and every week at least one user walks away with a guaranteed prize of at least $100.

You never buy a ticket, and your savings stay in the bank you already use, connected read-only. That’s what changes everything compared with a lottery ticket: once the draw is done, win or lose, your balance is intact and a little fuller than the week before.

Wondering if that makes it a form of gambling? It doesn’t, and our is prize-linked savings gambling explainer lays out the reasoning. If you want the full model, from its US roots to how it works here, the guide to prize-linked savings in Canada covers it, and the winning numbers page lists every draw so far.

Quebec will pour billions more into the lottery this year, and much of it will buy little more than a few minutes of what-if. You can keep the fun of a draw and keep your money at the same time. Set aside something small each week, collect your free tickets, and the worst outcome is that you ended up saving.

Ready to trade the losing ticket for a draw that costs you nothing? 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 tickets 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.