CALGARY —
There has been a “massive surge” in ticket sales for Tuesday’s Lotto Max draw, which will be the richest jackpot in Canadian history at $70 million.
“Sales for tonight are tracking high,” said Kevin van Egdom, director of communications for the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. “We have seen a massive surge.”
This is the second time the Lotto Max draw $70-million maximum jackpot will be up for grabs, as there was no winner in Friday’s draw, meaning the jackpot carries over once again.
Even though there was no grand prize winner on Friday, about $18 million in cash prizes were paid out for tickets having three, four, five, or six of seven numbers. There were also about two million free plays awarded.
Van Egdom said Friday’s draw saw about $80 million in ticket sales and tonight’s is tracking even higher.
“We see about half the sales for a draw on the day of the draw and about half of those in the couple hours leading up, so I’m guessing stores are busy,” he said.
Tickets can be purchased until 8:30 p.m. MT, then the winning numbers will be posted online soon after.
Once the jackpot goes above $50 million, Maxmillions draws, each for a $1 million prize, are done for each additional million dollars in ticket sales.
Friday’s draw saw 26 Maxmillions draws and van Egdom expects that number to be about the same or higher tonight.
The odds of winning are about 1-in-33 million.
Winners have one year from the day of the draw to collect their prize. The largest outstanding prize waiting to be claimed is $250,000 from an Extra draw in September.
Van Egdom says about half the money from each ticket sale goes toward the jackpot, while the other half goes toward administration of the lottery. Any profits remaining are sent to provincial governments
