Courtesy of olg.ca

Lotto Super 7 is being replaced by the new kid on the block - Lotto Max. If you are at all sentimental the last Super 7 draw will be on Friday, September 18^th. Like your old friend Lotto Super 7, Lotto Max is a national lottery with draws taking place every Friday night. Tickets for the first Lotto Max draw to take place on Friday, September 25^th will go on sale on Saturday, September 19^th.

Unlike its Super 7 cousin, you can’t buy 3 chances to win for $2 or $3 including Encore. Lotto Max tickets are $5 for 3 chances. Each chance is a row of 7 numbers from 1 – 49 and to win the jackpot you must have all 7 numbers. Jackpots will start at $10 million. They will grow until they are won or reach $50 million, which ever comes first. Once the jackpot reaches $50 million it will go into “Maxmillions” mode, which means that the main jackpot will remain at $50, but there will be additional prizes of $1 million, each with its own draw and set of winning numbers, separate from the main Lotto Max draw.

I don’t think that I am going to be too quick to play the new Lotto Max. Spending loose change on a lottery ticket is a no-brainer, but once I have to take out a bill, well that is a different story. Considering that the odds of winning a jackpot are 1 in 28.6 million per play, putting down my hard earned $5 doesn’t seem like a very good investment when for $5 dollars I could buy 5 items in the dollar store, 2 transit tokens, 10 boxes of facial tissue when my favourite kind goes on sales for 49 cents at Shoppers, 2 cases of 35 bottles of water each when they go on sale for $1.99 at Food Basics, a pint of beer, … What about you, will you be buying Lotto Max tickets?