Since it was launched in 2000, the South African National Lottery, or simply the lottery or Lotto, has gone from strength to strength. What started out as a single weekly draw, has evolved into two weekly draws and three ticket variations that any and all South Africans 18 or older can buy online or offline.

In this article we discuss the ins and outs of the South African lottery in terms of how it works, where and how you can buy tickets offline and online, how to check the lotto results, how you can help improve your chances of a winning a life-changing multi-million Rand lottery jackpot, and even its history.

The Lotto, South Africa’s first and arguably most popular lottery game, attracts millions of players per week, each as eager as the next to win instant millions. The table below highlights important information about this popular lottery game:

For each of each of the above ticket options, their unwon jackpots are automatically rolled over to the next draw date until they are eventually won. You can buy as many tickets as you want and all ticket prices are inclusive of 15% VAT.

The premise of any lottery is simple – you must just choose 6 numbers from 1 to 52 and then wait to see if they match those drawn in the respective lottery draw. If you match all 6 drawn numbers you’ll win the jackpot, or at the very least a share of it. (All lottery jackpots are automatically split by the number of winning tickets).

If you prefer not to select your own numbers you can always make use of the National Lottery’s ‘QuickPick’ option. This is where 6 numbers are randomly chosen for you by the lotto computer system. Either way, the odds of you winning a jackpot with hand-picked or with computer-generated numbers are pretty much identical.

When playing the Lotto at land outlets, you must physically mark off your numbers (a maximum of 6 per line) on a Lotto coupon as well as indicate if you want to opt in for LottoPlus 1 and/or LottoPlus 2. (Note: you must buy a regular Lotto ticket to be eligible for LottoPlus 1 which you must buy to be eligible for LottoPlus 2).

You must also indicate how many consecutive draws you would like your South African Lotto ticket to be eligible for. Then you can hand your coupon to the lottery operator to process. Or you can ask the operator to generate you a specified number of QuickPick tickets, with or without LottoPlus 1 or LottoPlus 2 as you see fit.

Once you’ve paid for your Lotto ticket or tickets, be sure to keep them somewhere safe and remember to check them during or after their draw. Winning lottery tickets are only valid for 365 days from the day of the draw. In other words, you only have one calendar year to claim your winnings before your lottery ticket expires.

These days you can buy South African lotto tickets online which means you never have to buy a physical lottery ticket ever again. All you need to do is sign up for a free account at a safe and reputable online lottery purveyor such as TheLotter (insert link), add funds to your account, and pick and play your favourite lottery games.

The biggest benefit of playing the SA lotto online is the sheer convenience of it. You can buy your tickets from virtually any internet-enabled computer, smart phone or device (within half an hour of any lottery draw). You can choose to have your draw results sent to you, while your winnings will automatically be credited to your online account.

Then, when you’re ready, you can simply withdraw your Lotto winnings using one of the many safe, secure and trusted withdrawal methods on offer. Because of this 24/7 ease and convenience, more South African lottery fans than ever before are turning to online lottery sites to secure their tickets, some of which also offer international lotto sales.

When it comes to Lotto results and payouts, even if you don’t match all of the numbers you can still walk away with some hefty cash prizes because every lottery game has a number of divisions (highlighted below from highest to lowest) that determines how winnings are paid out:

If you’re not one to watch the Lotto draw live, there are many ways to get the results if you have physical lottery tickets. For instance, you can either visit the official South African National Lottery website ( https://www.nationallottery.co.za) and navigate to its Results tab, or wait for the results the next day in most South African daily papers.

You can also visit your nearest Lotto retailer and have your ticket scanned. If you’re a winner, you’ll be paid out cash winnings of up to R2,000 by the retailer. You can claim cash winnings from R2,000 up to R50,000 at any SA post office, while anything above R50,000 you’ll have to claim in person at your closest regional ITHUBA office.

As to the very commonly asked question of how to win a South African lotto jackpot, the answer is simple – just buy tickets for it each week. Considering the odds of winning the jackpot of a 52-ball lottery game like the Lotto are a very slim 1: 20,358,520, all you can do to make sure you have a chance of overcoming these huge odds is to take part.

In other words, you have to be in it to win it. For many South Africans the odds listed above are way too high to justify buying lotto tickets each week. For many other South Africans, however, the knowledge that all jackpots are won eventually so why not by them is reason enough for them to buy lottery tickets in their quest for instant riches.

In terms of a common lottery jackpot strategy used by South African lottery fans, there really is none as everyone has their own ideas and theories. For instance, some players swear blind that the key to winning a jackpot is to play the same set of numbers week in and week out, while for others the key is to play different sets of numbers each week.

The reality is that there is no pattern when it comes to lotto jackpot winners. Some got lucky after years of playing the lotto while others won with the first ticket they bought. Some have been dirt poor and others filthy rich. Some winners bought thousands of Rands worth of tickets while others only purchased only one or two tickets a week.

The bottom line is that for just R10, you get 3 chances to win big in each Lotto draw.

In the late 1990s the South African government made the decision to launch a national lottery as a way to generate revenues for government coffers as well as provide South Africans with the country’s first ever lottery draw. As such, leading up to the nation’s very first Lotto draw on Saturday, March 11 2000, more than 800,000 tickets were sold on the first day alone. Since then the Lotto has made fans of millions of South Africans.

Uthingo was the original government-appointed national lottery operator until it was replaced in 2007 by Gidani which in turn was replaced in 2015 by current operator ITHUBA. Ever since those early days, the National Lottery and its offerings have grown substantially. For instance, another Lotto draw was added on a Wednesday, while a whole new lottery game, the Powerball, was added every Friday and Tuesday.

Other National Lottery offerings including SportStake 13, Pick 3, EAZiWIN and RAPIDO have also been added along the way.