How to play SA Lotto
Playing this game is easy. You need six numbers from 1 to 52. Winning Lotto numbers are being drawn every Wednesday and Saturday at 21:00.
- You need a Lotto bet slip, find it at your nearest Lotto retailer.
- Use a pencil or a pen to choose six numbers from 1 to 52 on as many boards as you wish.
- Take your Betslip to a cashier and make your payment – R5 for every one ticket per draw.
- You will get a ticket with chosen numbers, and you can sign it at the back.
- Check winning numbers on this site, and don’t throw away a ticket! Always double check numbers from different sources (tv, newspaper, or official Ithuba site: https://www.nationallottery.co.za/results/lotto/).
Lotto prizes and odds
Prizes may vary in each draw. They depend on the fact if the jackpot was won and a number of winning players in the draw. Also, it is connected with an amount of sold tickets before the specific draw. Although, the prize for matching three numbers is always guaranteed and fixed. If you match 3 of 6 numbers, you get an R50 prize. If somebody hit the jackpot, then the share of the prize pool is quite similar to shown below in the table.
| Matched numbers | Share of prize pool | Odds of winning |
| 6 correct | 73.0% | 1 in 20,358,520 |
| 5/6 + Bonus Ball | 2.3% | 1 in 3,393,087 |
| 5/6 | 4.0% | 1 in 75,402 |
| 4/6 + Bonus Ball | 5.0% | 1 in 30,161 |
| 4/6 | 8.4% | 1 in 1,371 |
| 3/6 + Bonus Ball | 7.3% | 1 in 1,028 |
| 3/6 | fixed R 50 | 1 in 72 |
| 2/6 + Bonus Ball | fixed R 20 | 1 in 96 |
If you want to play the lottery, you need to know what are the odds of winning the jackpot after matching all six results of Lotto. Also, what are the odds of winning smaller prizes? To win the jackpot, you must defeat about 20 million possibilities (number of combinations). That means that one in approximately 20 million sold tickets wins the pot! Chances are smaller than dying in a car accident. When you play, make sure that the ticket price satisfied your expectations concerning what you can win. The chances of winning the individual prize divisions are shown in the table above.
Prize payout methods
You have one year to claim the cash you won. Smaller prizes are possible to withdraw directly from your official Ithuba wallet to your bank. You can remain anonymous after the win.
Lotto prize tax
There is no additional tax to pay after claiming the lottery prize. All fees are already paid at the ticket price.
Where to watch draw online?
You can watch every draw in the local television like SABC2 (20:56). Another option is to use youtube channel located here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQWsxwRUFJHNfT202GVFghQ (broadcasts added after the drawing).
Lotto jackpots and rollovers
In this lottery game, there is something we call rollover. Jackpot prize grows as long as nobody matches the 6/6 numbers and Bonus Ball. That means pool for 1st prize division is rolled over to the next Draw’s corresponding division. That provides from time to time great cash prizes opportunities.
- If there are no winners in division 2-6 then the pool rolls down to the lower division, e.g. division 3 to division 4.
- If there are no winners in division 7 (quite impossible), then the pool rolls over to division 1 of the next draw.
- Breakage from any Lotto division rolls over to the same division next draw.
How big is the jackpot?
The SA Lotto jackpot on 03.06.2024 is estimated to be R6,000,000. The minimal jackpot amount is set to R2 million. There is no upper limit.
History of South African Lotto
Ithuba is Lotto operator from June 1st, 2024. However, African Lotto game is known from the year 2000. First SA Lotto results were published after the inaugural draw on 11 March 2000 (corresponding Lotto Plus 1 results are here). The first jackpot was split between six lucky players. President Thabo Mbeki bought the first ever Lotto ticket in Cape Town few days before the draw. From then, Lotto remains the most popular game in South Africa.
Ithuba made some changes to Lotto game on August 2nd, 2024. Lotto Plus 2 as an option to the game was proposed to the public. Lotto Plus became “Lotto Plus 1”. Since then all Lotto games had new number matrix of 52 numbers instead of 49. Prizes divisions and payout amount changed. One division with fixed prize was added. Changes were made to make more and bigger jackpots.