Play Canada Lotto Max Online – How to Play and Buy Tickets

Canada Lotto Max, one of the country's national lotteries, has paid out incredible prizes to countless lucky winners from coast to coast.

With an enticing prize pool that occasionally rivals that of even America’s biggest lotteries, fun extra features, and pretty decent odds, Lotto Max reigns supreme across Canada from coast to coast. However, it also holds its own among the world's top lotteries.

Read on to see how you can play Canada Lotto Max online and learn about its history, rules, odds, prizes, and more.

Canada Lotto Max History

Lotto Max was first introduced to Canadian residents by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation back in September 2009 to replace the Lotto Super 7 lottery.

The Lotto Max lottery is one of Canada’s three national lottery games (alongside Lotto 6/49 and Daily Grand) and a popular choice among millions of citizens.

In fact, the lottery quickly secured higher revenue in the first 10 months following its launch than its predecessor ever did in even its best year in the 15 years it was in operation.

Many attribute this success to the large size of Lotto Max’s jackpots and total prize pools, as well as its beloved MaxMillions system. This system considerably increases players' chances of winning and, in turn, the overall excitement they get out of playing. 

MaxMillions refers to a feature that is quite unique to Lotto Max that offers players the chance to win one of several $1-million prizes whenever a jackpot reaches $50 million.

These prizes are guaranteed payouts that are separate from the primary Lotto Max prizes. This means that even if you don’t win a Lotto Max jackpot or secondary prize, you could still walk away with a cool $1-million windfall.

How many other international lotteries offer that? (The answer is none, in case you’re actually wondering.)

How to Play Lotto Max

Lotto Max is pretty quick and easy to play. For CA $5 you get to play three sets of numbers. Each set consists of seven numbers that fall between the range of 1 to 49.

You need to match all seven numbers to win a share of 89.25% of the total prize pool.

The lottery allows you to select a Quick Pick option, which will have the seven numbers randomly chosen for you.

If you’re someone who likes to have a bit more control, however, then you can go for the “Selection Slip” option that will let you choose your own numbers.

There’s also an “Advance Play” option that lets you choose your numbers in advance for up to 26 weeks.

Those familiar with the subscription feature that many online lottery sites offer will already be familiar with how this works. Basically it just means you prepay once and then run the same numbers for whatever number of upcoming draws you choose. 

There is a minimum jackpot for Lotto Max, which starts at $10 million and can grow up to a $70-million cap at its max.

If the main Lotto Max jackpot is won, any MaxMillions that are not won are automatically added to the next minimum ($10 million) Lotto Max jackpot.

How to Play Lotto Max Online

If you don’t live in Canada, you might think that your chances of playing Lotto Max are pretty limited, but luckily that’s not the case.

Many of the best lottery concierge services offer access to both Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49, meaning you can play Canadian lotteries whenever and wherever you  want to.

Many of these sites offer great welcome offers and extremely useful features like subscriptions and group play that can save you money and increase your chances of winning. 

As a result, they can add a lot more to the experience than buying Lotto Max tickets directly from an official Canadian lottery kiosk or retailer. Plus the convenience they offer is second to none.

Odds of Winning Lotto Max

The Lotto Max odds for winning the jackpot are 1 in 33,294,800. These odds are approximately nine times better than the odds of winning the American Mega Millions (odds of 1 in 302,575,350) and Powerball (odds of 1 in 292,201,338) lotteries.

However, the odds are almost 2.5X as difficult as the 1 in 13,983,816 odds offered by its older brother, Lotto 6/49, which occasionally features similar jackpots.

Despite that, the overall likelihood of winning a prize in Lotto Max is 1 in 7, which is very much in the player’s favour. That alone makes giving this lottery a shot worthwhile.

Lotto Max Payout Table

Here are the odds of winning all of Lotto Max’s different prize tiers and the prize amounts available at each tier:

Canada Lotto Max Drawing Time

Lotto Max draws are held twice per week on Tuesday and Friday nights at a secure location in Toronto, Ontario, shortly after the ticket cutoff time at 7:30 pm PT/8:30 pm MT/9:30 pm CT.

Biggest Lotto Max Jackpots

The three biggest Lotto Max prize pools so far have been the following:

• In July 2012, the Lotto Max broke records by reaching $100 million in potential prizes
• In January 2017, the prize pool rose again to a never seen before $102 million
• In May 2018, that record was broken again when the prize pool reached $110 million

Of course, the $70-million cap that Lotto Max has in place would prevent anyone from winning the full amounts above. Nevertheless, several of the biggest Lotto Max winners also rank among Canada's biggest winners.

The cap also resulted in many additional MaxMillions prizes becoming available and multiple big jackpots being won consecutively.

As of January 2020, the biggest winner is Adlin Lewis of Brampton, Ontario, who won a $70-million jackpot.

Payout Options

All Lotto Max prizes (including the jackpots) are paid out as a single lump sum. Annuity payments are not possible with this particular lottery.

Taxes

Any lottery prizes won within Canada are tax-free, as neither the federal or provincial governments tax lottery winnings. In other words, players can rest assured that they’ll take home the full amounts they win.

Compare this to what happens with Powerball and Mega Millions winners in the US. In that country, federal and state taxes can add up to 45% depending on which state the ticket was purchased in, which is a serious chunk of the money. This makes Lotto Max even more appealing.

However, if you'll be playing Lotto Max from another country, check the local tax laws to make sure you won't be taxed by that country's government.

Canada Lotto Max – Is It Worth Playing?

With amazing tax-free jackpots, decent odds, and a reputation that’s hard to beat, Lotto Max has certainly earned its title as one of the best lotteries in Canada.

While there are other lotteries in the world that offer bigger jackpots, their odds are usually drastically tougher. As a result, your chances of actually walking away with a jackpot (or even lowest-tier prize) are pretty slim.

Besides, $70 million is hardly anything to scoff at. As such, we highly recommend Lotto Max to lotto enthusiasts who are looking for something new and exciting to play.

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