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Draw Desk / Questions
Draw 13

The questions, in full

Ten questions readers ask about a number draw, answered in the order a ticket is met: what the odds are, where the money goes, how a tier’s amount is set, what a rollover does, and how a prize is claimed. Each answer stands on its own.

Open the partner accountStart with the odds
Draw ticket
Sheet
DD-57-14
Subject
Questions
Answered
ten
Source
the counts and the published terms
3 tiersA printed sum: the rules state the amount, and it pays whoever matched, however many that is
1 tierA split fund: a declared share of the prize fund, divided among the lines that matched it
1 tierCarried forward: an unwon share of the fund moved into a later draw instead of paid
Direct answerThe ten answers below cover the odds of each tier in a six-of-fifty-nine draw, the share of a ticket price that reaches the prize fund, the difference between a printed, a split and a carried tier, what a rollover does and does not do, the claim window and a lost ticket, and whether a syndicate is a better purchase.
Odds from the countsThe split is the returnA window is not foreverNo system exists

Why these ten

The questions were chosen because each one has an answer a reader can re-derive from the published terms, and because each is a place where a widely repeated claim is wrong. None of them is a request for a method, and none is answered with one: a draw has no method, which is the honest and complete answer to several of them.

What to do with an answer

Every answer names the page it comes from, and every page works the arithmetic it relies on. Where a draw’s own rules differ from the illustrative figures used here, the rules decide - the checklist is the place to take them apart.

The questions, in full

q01

What are the odds of winning the top tier in a six-of-fifty-nine draw?

One in 45,057,474. Six numbers are chosen from a pool of fifty-nine without replacement and without regard to order, which gives 45,057,474 possible combinations, and a single line is one of them. Every lower tier is a count of the other combinations: 318 lines match five, 20,670 match four, 468,520 match three, and 489,509 lines match three or more, which is a chance of about one in ninety-two of winning any prize.

q02

How much of my ticket price actually goes to prizes?

It is the prize-fund share stated in the draw’s rules - fifty per cent in the illustrative draw used across this desk, where a quarter goes to the state or good causes, a fifth to the operator and a twentieth to the retailer. That share is the expected return before any rollover: a 2.00 ticket in a fifty-per-cent draw has an expected return of 1.00. The share is published, and it is the one figure to compare across draws.

q03

Does it matter which numbers I pick?

Not for the chance of winning a tier. Every combination has the same probability, because the probability is a count of combinations and the draw does not distinguish one from another. It can matter for what a shared tier pays, because a combination that many other tickets hold is matched by more winners and divided more ways - a real effect on the amount of a split tier, and not an effect on the odds.

q04

What is a rollover and does it make a ticket better value?

A rollover is the share of an unwon tier carried into a later draw rather than paid. It raises the effective return of the one draw it lands in, because it is money staked earlier and not yet paid, and it changes nothing about the split, the odds, or the return of the draw after it is won. It is a deferred claim, not generosity, and the draw it lands in is usually the most crowded of the year.

q05

What happens if the top tier is never won?

Every rollover rule attaches an end. Most give a maximum for the carried tier and a named draw at which, if the tier is still unwon, the prize is shared among the winners at the highest tier the draw produced rather than carried again. The rule decides whether a forced share pays a few lines a great deal or many lines a little.

q06

Is a printed prize different from a split one?

Yes, in what is knowable. A printed tier pays the amount the rules state, whatever the crowd, so it is knowable before the ticket is bought and is typically used for the frequent small tiers. A split tier has a declared share of the prize fund divided among its winners, so its amount is only known after the draw and moves with how many tickets matched it.

q07

How long do I have to claim a prize?

The window is stated in the draw’s rules, commonly a period of weeks or months, and a claim outside it is ordinarily refused. It matters what the window is measured from - the draw, or notification - because the two give different deadlines. A prize that is never claimed returns to the fund or to the state or cause under the rules, not to the operator.

q08

What if I lose my ticket?

It depends on the rules and on the channel. A bearerticket bought at a counter is usually the entitlement itself, so a lost one may be unclaimable unless the rules allow a claim on evidence such as a purchase record; a ticket held in an account is a recorded entry and is normally credited automatically. The lost-ticket rule is worth reading before the need arises, not after.

q09

Is a syndicate a better way to play?

It buys more combinations and divides any prize, and it does not change the price of a line, the odds of a line, or the return on a contribution. Twenty members at 2.00 each stake 40.00, buy twenty lines and multiply the group’s chance by twenty, and each member’s expected return is unchanged. Whether it is enforceable when a prize is won depends on a written record of the shares made before the draw.

q10

Can the odds be improved by any method?

No. A draw has a published combination count behind each tier and a published split of the ticket price, and the split is below the price, so the expected return of a ticket is below what it costs. No choice of numbers, arrangement of lines, time of day or number of players changes that, and this desk publishes no system because none exists. A rollover raises the effective return of one draw without changing any of this.