$38 Million Lottery Jackpot, One Of The Biggest Ever, Up For Grabs

It’s one of the biggest lottery jackpots in Canadian history – a whopping $38 million.

But despite a recent ombudsman’s report critical of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s practices, people are still rushing out to buy tickets for Wednesday’s draw.

“Gotta take a chance,” said Gwen Brunet, who’s planning to play.

Following a news report that suggested OLG retailers were winning more often than they should be, statistically-speaking, provincial ombudsman Andre Marin announced a probe into the matter. In his recent report, he slammed the Crown corporation for being “too close” to lottery retailers.

“The OLG is fixated on profit,” Marin charged after releasing his findings.

Opposition parties responded angrily, calling on the provincial minister responsible for lotteries, David Caplan, to resign.

There’s also the matter of odds.

“The chance of winning with a single ticket is really not very good. I could explain it this way. I could say that you’re supposed to choose numbers from 1 to 49. You’re supposed to choose 6 of them. And then it turns out the chance of your winning is equal to one chance in the total number of different ways that we can choose 6 numbers out of 49 numbers,” said Prof. Jeffrey Rosenthal of the University of Toronto’s Department of Statistics.

“So this works out to about one chance in 14 million, which is just incredibly small, and to put it in perspective, I can say that if you have to drive to the store to buy your ticket, you’re about twice as likely to die in a car crash driving to the store to buy your ticket as you are to win the jackpot.”

Players can purchase tickets for Wednesday’s draw at OLG retailers until 9pm.

To find out if you’ve won following the draw, click here.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest lottery jackpots in Canadian history:

October 26, 2005
$54,294,712 (1 winner, Lotto 6/49, Western Canada)

Aug. 12, 2006
$43,000,000

Nov. 8, 2006
$39,000,000

Apr. 4, 2007
$38,000,000

May 17, 2002
$37,841,970. (4 winners, Super 7, split Quebec, Western Canada and B.C.)

February 6, 2004
$32,500,000 (3 winners, Super 7, Ontario and Quebec)

April 23, 2004
$30,000,000 (1 winner, Super 7, Atlantic Canada)

October 10, 2003
$30,000,000 (3 winners, Super 7, B.C., Western Canada, Ontario)

April 11, 2003
$30,000,000  (1 winner, Super 7, Ontario)

August 7, 2004
$29,140,524  (2 winners, Lotto 6/49, Ontario)

Nov. 12, 2005
$27,227,325 (1 winner, Lotto 6/49, Western provinces)

Sep. 2, 1995
$26,410,706 (4 winners, Lotto 6/49, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada)

Dec. 29, 2004
$25,418,294 (1 winner, Lotto 6/49, Atlantic Canada)

Feb. 5, 2005
$25,146,316 (2 winners, Lotto 6/49, B.C., Quebec)

June 12, 2004
$25,000,000 (2 winners, Lotto 6/49, Ontario and Quebec)

So what are your odds of actually legitimately winning the top prize in one of Ontario’s lotteries?

Here’s the list.

6/49: 1 in 13,983,816

Super 7: 1 in 20,963,833

Ontario 49: 1 in 13,983,816

Lottario: 1 in 4,072,530.5

Payday: 1 in 1,353,275

Keno: 1 in 5.09

Pick 4: 1 in 10,000

Pick 3: 1 in 1,000

Encore: 1 in 10,000,000

Instant Lotteries:

$1 Games

Cash Blast: 1 in 600,000

Combo Cash: 1 in 600,000

Crossword Express: 1 in 750,000

Lucky Lines Express: 1 in 750,000

$2 Games:

Bonus Banco: 1 in 833,333

Banco: 1 in One Million

Casino Royale: 1 in 750,000

Dial 4 Dough: 1 in 750,000

Hot 25: 1 in 50

$3 Games

Bonus Crossword: 1 in one million

Extra Keno: 1 in 1 million

Instant Crossword: 1 in one million

Instant Keno: 1 in 1.2 million

Jigsaw: 1 in 1, 250,000

Royale Bingo: 1 in 2.5 million

Ruby Red Bingo: 1 in 2.5 million

Scrabble: 1 in 150,000,000

$4 Games

Cash For Life: 1 in 2.5 million

$5 Games

Ontario Instant Millions: 1 in 1 million

$20 Games

Quest for Gold Lottery

1 in 400,000