Since the commencing of lockdown there has been 4 first prize winners. Unfortunately, they will not be able to claim their winnings until the National Lotteries’ offices re-open. Fortunately, in South African you have 365 days to claim your winning prize money.
Since the beginning of 2020 there has been 41 draws for Lotto, Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2 games. Your chances of winning these games are all the same; 1 in 20,358,520 and you have to choose 6 numbers between 1 and 52. Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2 are additional games that you pay an extra R2.50 for and it gives you a second and a third chance to win.
On the 16th of May 2020, the latest lockdown lotto winner, who has not been identified yet, won R16,826,525.20. The lotto numbers drawn were 8,10,15,27,30,49 + 6.
The biggest winner during lockdown won the Lotto Plus 2 on Wednesday, 13 May. This is also the biggest Lotto Plus 2 winner so far in 2020. The amount of R19,424,193.30 was won and the winning numbers were 14,20,32,34,44,50 and 18. The winning ticket was purchased before retail ticket sales was suspended on the 27th of April. The winner purchased a quick pick multiple draw ticket on the 9th of April of R1000 (for 10 draws) at Rietfontein Pavilion, Gauteng.
The other 2 lockdown winners both won on the 11th of April. The Lotto amount of R10,546,013.80 was won with the matching numbers 6,25,41,43,45,48 + 38 and the Lotto Plus 1 amount of R6,304,858.80 was won with the numbers 1,9,17,37,49,52 + 5.
3 out of the 4 winners won on a Saturday and the number 49 featured in 2 of the 4 draws.
How much do South Africans spend on Lotto tickets
This lucky Gauteng winner on the 13th of May spent R1000 on 10 draws, which equals to R100 per draw and 10 tickets bought for each draw. To take the calculation even further, we can say that this participant spent R1000 over a period of 5 weeks, which is R200 per week. This is above the average amount spent by South Africans.
A survey that was published in March 2019 which consisted of 3090 households across all nine provinces of South Africa, stated that about 23,6% of the participants spend between R21 and R50 monthly, and 31,9% of the participants spend between R51 and R150 monthly. 26,9% of the respondents spend more when the first prize money is bigger than R10 million. On average they will spend R109 but when the prize money increases, they will spend on average 1,7 times more on a ticket. 25,2% of the participants who were active lotto players said the they spend more on a lotto ticket than initially planned when they buy a ticket.
The survey was conducted during the period of October 2018 and January 2019 by the Bureau of Market Research at UNISA.
