Online lotto for Australians
Australia has a fully-regulated lotto industry which is spearheaded by the state-run company Tatts Group, which pumps millions of dollars into various causes each year. The Australian lottery system has been seriously challenged by the emergence of licensed online operators like Lottoland, which allows Australians to bet on the outcome of many different lotteries held around the world. The rise of lottery betting has created a more competitive market which has benefited those of us who play lotto regularly.
OnlineLotto.com.au is your one-stop shop for everything lotto, we will teach you how to play, how to enter the different lotteries around the world, how to maximise your chances of winning a jackpot, and the best way to start lotto syndicates. It’s important to remember that laws surrounding lottery vary in each state, which means you may need to do your research before deciding which online lotto operator is best for you.
The popularity of lottery around Australia is evident in just how high our jackpots reach, with winnings soaring up to hundreds of millions of dollars. Winning the lottery is one of the quickest ways to strike it rich and while your chances of hitting the jackpot are slim, the old saying “you’ve gotta be in it to win it” has never been more true.
What is Lotto?
Lotto is one of the oldest games of luck in the world, with roots dating all the way back to the Chinese Han Dynasty in second century BC, while the earliest recorded European lotteries were held during the Roman Empire. Today lotto is a popular game in modern Australia and around the world, with many states, governments and private entities running national, local and charity lottery syndicates.
To participate in a game of lotto, players buy lottery tickets, choose a specified amount of lucky numbers and wait to see if their chosen numbers appear during the lottery draw, in which case they win a prize which typically consists of huge amounts of money. Lotto is a get-rich-quick game that can literally make dreams come true and has changed the lives of many Australians over the years. It requires no skills or strategies to play and is generally fairly affordable, making it popular with even the most inexperienced, recreational gamblers.
How to play lotto online
Online lotto is played just like you would if buying lotto tickets at a newsagency, petrol station or other retail outlet, the only difference being that you do not need to leave the house or stand in lines to purchase your tickets.
To play lotto online for real money in AUD, you must first decide if you want to buy tickets to official lottery draws, or participate in the latest form of online lottery, which is called lottery betting. Lottery betting means you place a wager on the outcome of the lottery draw rather than having a ticket in the official draw, but you still stand to win the same jackpot prize as the official lottery. To buy official lottery tickets online, we recommend OzLotteries which is a government authorised online retailer selling tickets to major Australian national and charity lotteries. To bet on the outcome of lottery draws, head to LottoLand or Planet Lottery where you can bet on Australian lotteries as well as global lotteries like US Powerball and EuroMillions.
Signing up to bet or buy lotto tickets at these top-rated sites is easy and just requires a few personal details like your name, address and date of birth (note that players must be 18 or over to play Australian lotto). Choose the lotto game you want to play, and follow the prompts to choose your numbers and the number of draws you want to participate in. When your transaction is ready, transfer funds to your lotto account using one of the secure payment methods offered by the lotto venue. Results can be viewed online as soon as the draw has taken place.
If you are lucky enough to be a winner, you will receive notification of your win via email, and your winnings will be credited to your online lotto account. Not only is playing online lotto more convenient than purchasing lotto tickets in real life, but it also means your lotto tickets are safe and secure so you don’t not have to worry about misplacing any winning tickets.
Lotto available in Australia
Given the popularity of lotto within Australia, there are several large lottery syndicates offered around the country. Here are some of the biggest Aussie lotto games:
- Oz Lotto – this is the messiah of them all, played over all states and territories across Australia. Oz Lotto holds the current record for the biggest ever Australian lotto win, when four lucky players shared a mouth watering $111,972,151.04 jackpot back in 2012. Oz Lotto is drawn every week on Tuesday and is run by the Tatts Group.
- Powerball – another of the biggest lotto games in Australia, Powerball has produced many instant millionaires. The Tatts Group Powerball draw happens every Thursday night, with six numbers drawn from a first barrel along with the lucky “powerball” that’s drawn from a separate barrel. The record Aussie Powerball win was taken in 2009 when two lucky players split a prize pool of $80 million AUD.
- Super 66 & Lucky Strike – Super 66 is a national Australian lottery that’s played over all states and territories excluding NSW, which has its own version of Super 66 called Lucky Strike. These two games are considered add-ons which are available in addition to other lotteries like the Saturday and Wednesday night lotto and are drawn prior to the main event.
- Tatts Monday, Wednesday & Saturday Lotto – the Tattos Lotto is drawn nationally on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights. This is generally the easiest lotto game to play and understand and is hugely popular throughout Australia. The Saturday lotto is the biggest, but players can enjoy some mid-week excitement with the Monday and Wednesday lotto’s which have cheaper buy-ins.
- Lucky Lotteries – Lucky Lotteries is a raffle draw with a growing jackpot, with tickets available for $2 or $5 dollars. With only around 225,000 tickets sold, your chances of winning are a little higher than winning the big national lotteries. Raffle numbers are drawn by random number generators and there’s a first, second and third winner along with several runner up prizes.
- The Pools – The Pools is a lottery game designed especially for soccer fans. It’s a classic lottery game where you choose six winning numbers from one to 38, but the results are based on the outcomes of soccer games happening in Australia and Europe. The six highest scoring draws determine the winning numbers. Ultimately this is still a luck based lottery game, so you can play and have just as much chance of winning even if you know nothing about the game of soccer.
- Set for Life – This unique lottery gives Aussie players the chance to win $20,000 a month for 20 years, where winning the major prize will ensure you never have to worry about bills again.
- Lottery Betting – Lottery betting is a new online lottery service that allows players to bet on the outcome of major lottery draws from Australia and around the world. You pick your numbers just like you would when buying a normal lottery ticket, but your wager is on the outcome of the draw instead of on the draw itself. Lottery betting services in Australia are operated by Lottoland and Planet Lottery.
Online lottos available for Australian residents
Buying online lottery tickets and betting on winning numbers online are now a reality with several very popular online lottery sites that cater especially for Australians who want to bet on local and international lotteries such as the U.S. Powerball.
- Lottoland.com.au: Operating out of NT, Aussie punters can place a bet on the outcome of lotteries from all over the world at Lottoland, an all-new online lottery site which has taken Australia by storm for making it possible to play bigger international lottery draws such as UK Lotto, MegaMillions US and Powerball US. Read our full in-depth review of Lottoland here.
Oz Lotteries is an online retailer allowing Australian residents to buy tickets to the lotteries you will find at your local newsagency – but online. They are an authorised online retail agent of NSW Lotteries, SA Lotteries and Tatts and an accredited retailer of numerous charity lotteries in the country. Tickets can be bought on OzLotteries by players from every state except Queensland, which only allows charity lottery purchases due to licensing reasons. Read our official review of OzLotteries here.- Planet Lottery – Operated by major online sports betting provider William Hill, Planet Lottery is an online lottery betting services that allows Aussie players to bet on the outcome of lottery draws from around the world. Bet on national lotteries like X-Lotto or Powerball, or try your luck on overseas draws like US Powerball, Euro Millions, Swedish Lotto and tonnes of others. Read our official review of Planet Lottery here.
- OzLotto
- Poweball
- TattsLotto
- Friday Lotto
- Saturday Lotto
- Mon & Wed Lotto
- The Pools
- Lucky Lotteries
- Lotto Strike
- Super 66
- Set for Life
- NSW: Operated by NSW Lotteries, Sydney residents can buy tickets to Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, The Pools and Lotto Strike
- South Australia: Operated by SA Lotteries, Adelaide residents can buy tickets to X-Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, The Pools, Super 66 and Keno
- Victoria: Operated by Tatts, Victorian residents can buy tickets to Tatts Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Mon & Wed Lottery, The Pools and Super 66
- Queensland: Operated by Golden Casket, QLD residents can buy tickets to Gold Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Super 66 and The Pools
- ACT: Operated by NSW Lotteries, NSW residents can buy tickets to Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, The Pools and Lotto Strike
- Tasmania: Operated by Tatts, Tasmanian residents can buy tickets to Tatts Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Mon & Wed Lottery, The Pools and Super 66
- Northern Territory: Operated by Tatts, NT residents can buy tickets to Tatts Lotto, Oz Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Mon & Wed Lottery, The Pools and Super 66
- Western Australia: WA is the only state that has its own state owned and operated lottery, LotteryWest. WA residents can buy tickets to Oz Lotto, Saturday Lotto, Monday Lotto, Wednesday Lotto, Powerball, Set for Life, Cash3, Soccer Pools and Super66.
- US Power
- EuroJackpot
- EuroMillions
- WorldMillions
- Swedish Lotto
- MegaMillions
- SuperEnaLotto
- Irish Lotto
- French Lotto
- Cash4Life
- Hong Kong MK6
- UK Lotto
- And loads more
- BPay
- Visa
- MasterCard
- PayPal
- POLi
- Paysafecard
How many lotto operators are licensed in Australia?
In Australia, the Tatts Group holds a near monopoly on all lotteries run in the country. Tatts runs under multiple brands across the nation, including Tatts Group, NSW Lotteries, SA Lotteries and Golden Casket, with multiple lotteries running within each brand. Tatts is responsible for all major national lotteries, including:
Western Australia is the only state with its own lottery, Lotterywest. WA residents can buy tickets through Lotterywest to multiple different lotteries, including OZ Lotto, Powerball and several others.
In addition to Tatts Group and LotteryWest, private and non-for-profit organisations can apply for a license to operate a charity lottery, where all proceeds raised go back to a good cause. Charity lotteries typically offer smaller prize pools than national Tatts lotteries, but can include major prizes like luxury homes, holidays, cars, cash, electronics, vouchers and various other prizes. An example of charity lotto operators includes the Endeavour Home Prize Lottery, Surf Life Saving Lotteries and the Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation Art Union.
There are only a couple of lottery operators licensed to sell lottery services online. One is OzLotteries, which is a third-party retailed authorised to sell tickets to major Tatts Group lotteries and charity lotteries, while Planet Lottery and Lottoland are licensed to provide online lottery betting services to Australian punters.
Australian state lotteries explained
While the Tatts Group oversees a majority of all major lottery operations in Australia (with WA being the only state not part of Tatts), its lotteries are marketed under different names in different states, so players are often participating in the same draw Australia-wide, but the name may lead you to think otherwise. Below we’ve explained which company owns or leases lottery services in each state, along with the names of the major lotteries available:
Playing overseas lotto from Australia
Thanks to the introduction of lottery betting services, Aussies can now place bets on some of the biggest lottery draws from around the globe. Overseas lottery betting services are operated by sites like Lottoland and Planet Lottery, where instead of buying a ticket to the draw itself, you bet on the outcome of what the draw will be. The same prizes are up for grabs and game play rolls out just like you were purchasing tickets to the draw. Read our guides to find out more about lottery betting services and how this differs from traditional lottery draws.
Some of the international lottery draws you can bet on from Australia include:
Are there strategies for playing lotto?
At the crux of it all, lotto is a game of luck. This means there is nothing that a player can do to influence the outcome of a lotto draw, with numbers drawn completely at random with no foreseeable way to estimate the results. Regardless, this doesn’t stop many players from employing dedicated strategies, from the somewhat mathematical to the absurdly superstitious.
Common strategies include choosing lucky numbers, significant dates, frequently reoccurring numbers from past draws and numerology calculations. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a lotto strategy, be mindful that nothing will change the fact that the outcome of lotto ultimately comes down entirely to luck, so don’t take lotto strategy too seriously.
How to make safe AUD deposits at online lotto sites
Our favourite online lotto venues offer various secure deposit methods to purchase lotto tickets, with payments available in AUD. The deposit options vary from site to site, but typically you will find these payment methods at Australian lotto sites:
Our recommended online lotto sites use a minimum of 128 Bit SSL security during all transactions, to ensure your financial information is encrypted and private at all times.
Is it legal for Aussies to play lotto online?
It is perfectly safe and 100% legal for Australian punters to play online lotto at any of the gaming platforms recommended on our site. All of these real money lottery sites are licensed by reputable gambling jurisdictions and regulated by leading gambling industry bodies. Further information about the licensing of each lotto syndicate is available at the individual operator’s sites, just click on any of our links for specific details.
About the OnlineLotto team
The team behind OnlineLotto.com.au is dedicated to bringing Aussie lotto players the most in-depth lottery news and information. We love the thrills involved with real money gambling mixed with the convenience of online play and just like the rest of Australia, we have always got our fingers crossed for that big lotto win. If you have any questions or comments about any of the information provided on our site please feel free to comment on our articles and we will do our best to help you out as quickly as possible.