World lotteries by chances of winning any prize
Which lottery offers you the best chances of winning any prize? Our graph here tells the story - the lowest number here is better. So, for example, if you play the Floriad Lotto you will only be winning something at all around once every 68 draws, assuming you play just one ticket per draw, that is. Compare that then with the euromillions lottery where you will be getting something back about one in every 13 tickets.
There are some lotteries though that have good chances of winning any prize but the most common prize that they offer is just the value of your ticket purchase, i.e. you get a free ticket back. The euromillions is a little better here in that you will win about 1.5x your stake for the lowest (most common) prize level.
World lotteries by chances of winning the jackpot
How easy is it to win the jackpot on a lottery and which lottery is best? Here's where we compare jackpot odds. Worst up is the Italian Superenalotto where your chances of winning are a whopping 622 million to 1! That said, it does also mean that this jackpot isn't hit too often so grows to a very respectable €60m on average ! Again the smallest numbers are better here, i.e. they are 'easier' to hit. Some of the more easier jackpots to win include the Hoosier Lottery or the Irish Lotto where your chances of hitting the big one are around 1 in 10m.
Ideally, you would find a lottery that had relatively easy odds of hitting the jackpot with a good sized jackpot too. See the graphs below for jackpot sizes.
World lotteries by average jackpot size
Average jackpots are a tricky one to calculate as it depends on what 'average' you're talking about. When a jackpot has just been won, the jackpot in the next draw is the lowest - this is often a minimum guaranteed amount. If you're playing a lotto every week on subscription you will be playing with all sizes of jackpots from the minimum through to the maximums. The average then would be of all of these.
Here below, our graph shows another 'average': this is the typical size a jackpot will reach by the time it is hit. It is basically the minimum guaranteed amount plus the amount added each week x the average no. of rollovers til it is hit.
World lotteries by return to player
Possibly the most important measurement of a lottery is its value to a player. The return to player (RTP) here is what amount of every dollar, euro or pound spent goes back to players in prizes. The other way of looking at it - the difference - is how much of your dollar does the lottery keep for its own purposes (whether profit, taxes or contribution to good causes)?
How much gets paid back to players will vary each week on the size of the jackpot. If you're playing when the jackpot has first been reset to its minimum, then your RTP will be much lower. At the other end of the scale, you may also be lucky enough to get real positive RTP when the jackpot rolls over to a very large amount! More on this in our All Graphs section.
Here, we have calculated the more typical RTP you would face when playing a lottery when it's jackpot was about ready to be won. So, which lottery is best value? The best value lotteries are Superlotto Plus (California) and the Hoosier Lottery. Megamillions used to be great value before the price and payout changes last year. This table, for example shows that the Californian Superlotto Plus typically pays out around 74c of every $1 spent when the jackpots get to the average size they are when hit. Those which return the least back to players are Hotlotto , Megamillions and the Ozlotto.
