Lotto Max: You Can’t Please Everybody

September 19th, 2009, Canada started a new national lottery called Lotto Max. This new game replaced the long running Super 7 lottery. The odds of this new game remained the same as those of Super 7, however, the wager per ticket was increased, as was the amount of prize payouts. This game also has an interesting twist, one that came about by asking Canadians what they would like to see in a lottery. Some Canadians wanted bigger jackpots, like those in Europe and The United States, while others wanted prizes to be divided up into smaller amounts. Canada’s solution for this was to have a lottery that would start at $10 Million and if no one matched the numbers would increase each week until the jackpot reached $50 Million, funds over the $50 Million mark would then be put into additional draws called Maxmillions of $1 Million each. A bit complicated on the surface, yet it seemed like a solution to please both those wanting larger jackpots and those wanting funds to be divided into smaller jackpots.

After a few weeks of a growing jackpot no one had matched all 7 numbers to claim the prize. The jackpot grew from the initial $10 Million to $50 Million plus ten Maxmillions draws of $1 Million each. The draw date was November 6, 2009. A ticket purchased in Manitoba was the sole winner for the $50 Million jackpot. Of the ten $1 Million Maxmillions only five had been matched, three were won on single ticket, and two shared by two tickets.

After I found out that I did not win the jackpot I looked for news feeds to see if the winner had come forward. They had not, however there were a number of news threads with comments about the new game. I looked at a few of the comments and a few of them were people complaining about the new game with the same trite comments they had had about Super 7, or have about Lotto 6/49 every time the jackpot has been big and had a sole winner. The babbling on and on about how lottery officials should divide the jackpot up into smaller ones so that more people can win. Okay, let’s hold up a minute, this game had that part included for those people that wanted that type of thing. Sure it had the larger jackpot that others had requested. I am sure the winner of the jackpot is not sitting there thinking if only they did not have Maxmillions, I would have $60 Million instead of $50 Million. I am sure they are celebrating their win. So why are these others still whining about the jackpot being divided up? They got a little bit of what they have been asking for small $1 Million jackpots so more people can win.