How to Play Daily Lotto
Daily Lotto is the only lottery game in South Africa to be played every day of the week, and the jackpot is guaranteed to be given away in every draw. Find out all you need to know about Daily Lotto on this page, including how to play and when the draws take place.
Daily Lotto draws take place at 21:00 every evening and you can buy tickets up to 20:30. You can play online or in-store and entries cost R3 each. Follow the steps below to take part:
Online
- Set up a lottery account and make a deposit so you can pay for tickets
- Choose five numbers from 1 to 36 or select ‘Quick Pick’ to generate a random set. Repeat this on as many boards as you want to play
- Decide whether to enter a single draw or multiple draws
- Confirm and pay for your entry
The biggest benefit of playing online is that you don't have to worry about losing your ticket, as your numbers are saved in your online lottery account. You will also receive a notification if you win a prize, so even if you forget to check your numbers, you won't miss out on the prize money.
In-Store
- Pick up a betslip in any lottery store
- Choose five numbers between 1 and 36 or ask for a Quick Pick
- Decide how many boards to play
- Select how many consecutive draws you wish to enter, up to a maximum of 10. Leave blank for a single draw
- Take your betslip to the teller to pay for your ticket
Remember to write your details on the back of your ticket in case you need to claim a prize. If you do not sign your ticket and you lose it, anyone will be able to use it to claim the prize.
Go to the How to Play page to learn more about the various ways to play lottery games, including through the websites and apps of South Africa’s major banks.
Daily Lotto puts up prizes worth hundreds of thousands of rand in every draw, and all you need to do to hit the jackpot is match all five of your chosen numbers. Even if you don’t manage to do that, you can still win a prize by matching just two or more numbers.
What’s more, the jackpot prize money is guaranteed to be given away, so if no one matches all five numbers in a draw, the jackpot ‘rolls down’ and is split between everyone that matches four numbers. Take a look at the table below for more information about the prizes available, including the odds of winning and what the average payouts have been over the last 365 days:
| Prize Division | Numbers Matched | Odds of Winning* | Percentage of Prize Pool | Average Prize for the past 365 days' draws |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 1 in 376,992 | 35.60% | R259,189.31 |
| 2 | 4 | 1 in 2,432 | 8.20% | R535.99 |
| 3 | 3 | 1 in 81 | 16.40% | R20.05 |
| 4 | 2 | 1 in 8.40 | 39.80% | R5.01 |
| * The overall odds of winning a Daily Lotto prize are 1 in 7.6 | ||||
The prizes aren’t fixed amounts. Instead, a certain amount of the money from every ticket sold goes into the prize pool, which is then split between the different divisions according to the percentages shown in the table. The money for each division is then split between all the players that win that prize. This means that the individual prize amounts can change from draw to draw.
Head over to the How to Claim Prizes page if you’ve won some money playing Daily Lotto and want to know what to do next. You have 365 days from the date of the winning draw to claim any prizes.
FAQ
Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Daily Lotto right here. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, visit the FAQs page for more information.
The maximum you can play per betslip is R150, although you can play multiple betslips in the same draw.
The only time when Daily Lotto is not played is on 25 December – Christmas Day. There is a draw every other night of the year at 21:00.
All the prize money must be won, so if there are no winners in a particular division the money will roll down to the next division below.
For example, if no one matches five numbers to win the first division prize, the money rolls down to the second division to be shared by all the players that match four numbers. In the unlikely event that there are no winners in that division either, the prize money rolls down to the third division, and so on. If there are no winners in division four - the lowest one - the money is added to the jackpot for the next draw.
The prize pool consists of 50 percent of the money spent on tickets for each draw.
Daily Lotto launched with its first draw on Sunday, 10 March 2019. The game was launched by Ithuba to give more choice to players and to offer a draw that was guaranteed to be won every time. There were no Match 5 winners in the first draw, so the jackpot rolled down and 57 players shared R114,353, winning R2,006 each.