South African National Lottery

South African National Lottery

Logo used 2015 - present
Region	South Africa
First draw	11 March 2000 (2000-03-11)
Operator	Ithuba
Regulated By	National Lotteries Commission
Highest Jackpot	R102,016,595
Odds of winning jackpot	13,983,816 to 1 (Lotto) 13,983,816 to 1 (Lotto Plus) 24,435,180 to 1 (PowerBall) 24,435,180 to 1 (PowerBall Plus) 531,441 to 1 (SportStake) 4 to 1 (EAZiWIN)
Number of Games	6
Shown on	E.tv, SABC 2
Website	www.nationallottery.co.za

The National Lottery is operated by Ithuba, to whom the licence was granted in 2015. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established in 2000.

Lottery tickets may be bought only by people of at least 18 years of age.

In the 2007 fiscal year transaction values totalled R3.972 billion, with an average of five million transactions per week. In the 2012 National lottery generated R4.7 billion in sales of Lotto and Powerball tickets.^[1]

Lotto is the most popular type of gambling in South Africa^[2] but Powerball has been the faster-growing for last years due to its high payouts.^[1]

History

The National lottery was introduced to South Africa on 11 March 2000. At the time it was run by Uthingo.

After a marketing effort that aimed to reach 80 percent of South African homes directly^[3] more than 800,000 tickets were sold in the first day of availability^[4] Nearly R70 million worth of tickets were sold in the first three weeks of operation.^[5]

In October 2002 operator Uthingo suggested a daily lottery to supplement the weekly draw. The concept, called Keno, was rejected by the trade and industry ministry in March 2003.^[6] In November 2003 the Lotto Plus game was launched, acting as a supplementary weekly lottery available on the purchase of a primary lottery ticket, with an entry fee of R1.^[7]

In July 2006 the Gidani consortium, featuring Greek company Intralot as a technical partner, was judged the preferred bidder to operate the lottery for seven years starting April 2007. The operating licence was awarded in October 2006.^[8] In March 2007 the Pretoria High Court set aside that award on application by incumbent Uthingo, finding that the failure to adequately investigate the shareholders in some bidding consortia left room for conflicts of interest.^[9]

Following the final draw by incumbent Uthingo, the lottery was indefinitely suspended in April 2007.^[10]

In September the operating licence was awarded to Gidani again.^[11] When ticket sales re-opened in October more than 200,000 tickets were sold within the first three hours.^[12] Gidani introduced scratch cards, but they were discontinued for several months when they lost there licence to Ithuba.

In 2015, Lotto licences were awarded to Ithuba. In 2015, 2 new games were introduced by Ithuba: EAZiWIN, an instant win game consisting of four types of indigenous inspired games; Morabaraba, Fafi Fortune, 4 Siya Wina and Popa Feela and PowerBall Plus.

Eligibility

• Players must be 18 years or older
• Tickets may be bought in person at approved retailers & banks in South Africa.
• Online purchase of tickets are only available to people who have an FNB or Nedbank bank account have registered on the South African National Lottery website and are residents of South Africa with a South African ID.

Games

LOTTO and LOTTO PLUS odds

Match	Odds of winning	% of total winning pool
3	1 : 60	R50.00 FIXED
3 and bonus	1 : 812	9.1%
4	1 : 10,824	8.9%
4 and bonus	1 : 22,196	9.9%
5	1 : 55,491	5.4%
5 and bonus	1 : 2,330,696	6.5%
All 6	1 : 13,983,816	60.1%

9 games operate under the South African National Lottery brand:

Current games

LOTTO

Players buy tickets with their choice of six different numbers between 1 and 49; there is provision for random numbers to be generated automatically for those who do not wish to choose, known as 'Quick Pick'.

In the draw, six numbered balls are drawn without replacement from a set of 49 balls numbered from 1 to 49. A further Bonus Ball is also drawn, which affects only players who match five numbers.

Prizes are awarded to players who match at least three of the six drawn numbers, with prizes increasing for matching more of the drawn numbers. All players who match all six drawn numbers win equal shares of the jackpot; the chance of doing so is 1 in 13,983,816. If four, five, or six balls are matched, the relevant prize is divided equally between all who match that many balls. If no player matches all six numbers, the jackpot is added to that of the next Lotto draw—a Rollover.

The entry fee to the LOTTO draw is set at R5.00 per board.

The draw is conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays on SABC 2 at 21:00.

PowerBall and PowerBall PLUS odds

Match	Odds of winning	% of total winning pool
PowerBall	1 : 37	Fixed (R10 for PowerBall/ R5 for Power Ball Plus)
1 ball and PowerBall	1 : 53	Fixed (R15 for PowerBall/ R7.50 for Power Ball Plus)
2 balls and PowerBall	1 : 247	5.1%
3 balls	1 : 165	7.6%
3 balls and PowerBall	1 : 3,133	8.9%
4 balls	1 : 6,430	9.3%
4 balls and PowerBall	1 : 122,176	4.9%
5 balls	1 : 1,286,062	9.7%
All balls including PowerBall	1 : 24,435,180	54.4%

LOTTO PLUS

LOTTO PLUS is exactly the same as LOTTO, but gives the player a second chance to win. When buying a LOTTO ticket, the player must pay an extra R2.50 per board to enter the LOTTO PLUS draw. Odds are the same, while prizes are usually slightly lower.

The draw is conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays on SABC 2 at 21:00.

PowerBall

The PowerBall jackpot draw requires players to pick five main numbers from 1 to 45 and one 'PowerBall' number from 1 to 20 for an entry fee of R5 per board. Prizes may be won by matching the main numbers, with matches of the PowerBall number winning higher prizes. The top prize of the game is won by matching all five main numbers as well as the PowerBall. Draws take place on Tuesdays and Fridays on E.tv at 21:00.

After 28 November 2015, odds were as more possibilities to win were introduced. An example of the recent additions were, if the player matched only the Powerball, he or she would win money, while before, that ticket would not win anything.

The record prize for any Lottery game in South Africa was in PowerBall at R102,016,595. This prize was won in the Free State but never collected. The highest claimed prize was also from PowerBall at R91,068,427

PowerBall PLUS

PowerBall PLUS is exactly the same as PowerBall, but gives the player a second chance to win. When buying a PowerBall ticket, the player must pay an extra R2.50 per board to enter the PowerBall PLUS draw. Odds are the same, while prizes are usually slightly lower.

Powerball PLUS was a more recent game added by the National Lottery of South Africa and is currently the newest game. It was introduced on the 28th of November 2015.

Draws take place on Tuesdays and Fridays on E.tv at 21:00.

SPORTSTAKE 13

A player can play SPORTSTAKE 13 by predicting outcomes of 13 predetermined match fixtures drawn from English and other identified professional soccer fixtures.

For each fixture the player chooses their prediction by marking on the bet slip;

[1] – for a home win

[x] – for a draw

[2] – for a home loss (Away win)

• • You can select a single or multiple outcomes result for each fixture.
  • A valid wager must consist of at least one selection per fixture.
  • A minimum price per wager per board is R2.00 vat incl, and a maximum wager per Betslip is R2000.00
  • Each wager will cost you R2.00 vat incl.
  • You can play PROPICK™ as a quick play option
  • There is no Multi Draw option.
  • SPORTSTAKE 13 fixture results are considered as the final score after 90 minutes of play or after extra time where applicable, however excludes penalty shoot-out.

EAZiWIN odds

Name of Game	Game based on	Price of Card	Highest Prize	Odds of winning
Popa Feela	Unknown	R3	R30,000	1 : 4
4 Siya Wina	Unknown	R5	R100,000
Fafi Fortune	Fafi
Morabaraba	Morabaraba

EAZiWIN

As well as tickets for the Draw Games, the National Lottery also sells instant win digital scratch cards.

They are digital scratch cards, where a card is compared against a slip and not scratched like traditional scratchcards. These are called 'EAZiWIN and are based on traditional African games.

Cards range from R3 to R5.

PICK 3

Lotto's newest game was announced to launch on the 3rd of December 2016. It will be a daily game with a top prize of R10,000.

Discontinued games

Wina Manje

Wina Manje was a scratchcard game that consisted of many types of scratch cards. This was replaced by EAZiWIN in 2015.

Raffle

South African National Lottery announced that there would be a once-off raffle for Christmas 2016. The draw took place on the 30th of December 2016. It was officially named "Raffle". Prizes included R1,000, R10,000, R100,000, with the top prize being a Mercedes Benz C200 Cabriolet

Other ways to play

As well as by purchasing a ticket at a shop, tickets can be purchased many other ways.

Online

All National Lottery games can be played online after registering. There are two ways of playing the lotto online.

FNB & Nedbank: LOTTO, LOTTO PLUS, PowerBall and PowerBall PLUS are available for play through the bank's apps.

National Lottery website: LOTTO, LOTTO PLUS, PowerBall, PowerBall PLUS and SPORTSTAKE 13 are available for play through the South African National lottery website.

Record Jackpots

Below lists the highest 10 jackpots from the National Lottery of South Africa.

Rank	Jackpot	Game	Draw number	Date	Notes
1	R102,016,595.00	PowerBall	166	2011-06-03	Not collected
2	R91,068,427.00	PowerBall	32	2010-02-12	Highest collected jackpot
3	R69,542,295.00	PowerBall	74	2010-07-13
4	R64,547,102.00	PowerBall	100	2010-10-12		5	R62,996,195	PowerBall		2016-09-18
6	R61,261,924.29	PowerBall	632	2015-12-11
7	R60,432,313.00	PowerBall	429	2013-12-20
8	R51,844,047.00	PowerBall	564	2015-04-14
9	R44,941,661.00	PowerBall	483	2014-07-01
10	R42,656,872.00	PowerBall	309	2012-10-19

Operators

Operator	Year begun	Year stopped
Ithuba	2015	Present
Gidani	2007	2015
Utingo	2000	2007

Socio-economic impact

In June 2003 it was reported that 27 percent of lottery players were unemployed ^[13] and that 43 percent of players earned less than R2,000 a month.^[14] It was also reported that legalised gambling had created 50 673 jobs in 2000, although it may have redirected spendings from other industries.^[15]

2006 research found that 82 percent of South Africans played the lottery once a week and that 53 percent of the population did not engage in any other form of gambling. The average player spent R81 per month on the lottery.^[16]

Revenue distribution

Under the current operator, Ithuba, 34 percent of revenue is paid to a central charitable distribution fund, up from an initial 28 percent.^[17] Six percent of revenue is paid as retail commission, ten percent is retained as operational costs and 50 percent is paid in prizes.^[18]

Previous lotteries in South Africa

The now defunct homeland of Ciskei established a lottery in 1984 and operated by Score-A-Lot. In 1991 Score-A-Lot was the first Lottery in Africa to operate Video Lottery Terminals (VLT) in Africa and the first totally cashless operation using smart card technology. After lengthy negotiations with South Africans "Department of Trade and Industry" (DTI) Score-A-Lot closed in Dec 2001^{[19] [20]}

A lottery was established by decree in the former homeland of Transkei in 1989 and operated by Score-A-Lot. In 1991 Score-A-Lot was the first Lottery in Africa to operate Video Lottery Terminals (VLT) in Africa and the first totally cashless operation using smart card technology. After lengthy negotiations with South Africans "Department of Trade and Industry" (DTI) Score-A-Lot closed in Dec 2001^[21]

The Natal Lotto (also referred to as the KZN Lotto) was launched in the KwaZulu-Natal province in 1992.^[22] During eight years of operation it raised R869 million and paid R345 million to charities and R448 million in prize money.^[23]

See also

• Uthingo

External links

• National Lotteries Board
• National Lottery website

References