 Lotteries in Australia include various lottery related products licensed by Australian lottery companies, comprising mainly of state government-owned corporations - New South Wales Lotteries, Golden Casket, South Australian Lotteries and Lotterywest - plus one private-sector company, Tattersalls, which operates in the states not covered by the state-owned operators.
Although the
organizations are predominantly state-based, Australia has a number of national lottery games. These games are typically administered by one of the above companies, and syndicated through the Australian Lotto Bloc - an umbrella
organization consisting of the above lottery operators - with prize pools combined between states. For example, Tattersalls administrates the Saturday Lotto (known as Tattslotto in its jurisdictions), Oz Lotto and Powerball games on behalf of the bloc. Similarly, South Australian Lotteries operate the Australian Soccer Pools, although the Soccer Pools bloc is technically related but separate. The bloc's member operators also market lottery games that run exclusively in its jurisdiction.
Australian lotteries are subject to many regulations, which generally vary from state to state. Lottery products can only be bought by persons over the age of 16 or 18 years, depending on the state.
Tattslotto (Saturday Lotto) - Tattslotto is
a product of Tattersalls. This section refers to the national Saturday night
draw, syndicated to all Australian states and territories through the Australian
Lotto Bloc.
Oz Lotto - Oz Lotto was created as Australia's
original national lottery game - at least, the first one based purely on chance
(as the Soccer Pools existed some years prior) - played on Tuesday nights and
administered by Tattersalls.
Powerball - Powerball is a lottery game
modeled on the highly successful American Powerball game. The game is
administered by Tattersalls, and syndicated to all states through the Australian
Lotto Bloc. Draws take place on Thursday nights.
Keno - This section lists Keno games administered
by lottery organizations only. Other gaming companies also run Keno games - in
particular, Tabcorp Holdings (through its acquisition of Jupiters Limited) runs
Keno in its casinos.
Super 66 - Super 66 is an Australian lottery
game played in all states except New South Wales (which plays Lotto Strike
instead). It is a product of Tattersalls and is played on a Saturday night,
drawn just before the main Tattslotto draw.
Soccer Pools - The Soccer Pools (otherwise
known simply as The Pools, or as 6 From 38 Pools in New South Wales) is an
Australian Lotto Bloc game administered by South Australian Lotteries. Entries
for the Pools close on Saturday afternoon or evening.
State Lotto Draws - In addition to
the Saturday Tattslotto draw, most states and territories' lottery corporations
hold their own lottery draws, playable only in their state (or states, in the
case of Tattersalls) of their jurisdiction.
Draw Lotteries - In this type of game, a
set number of tickets - typically in the low six figures - are offered for sale
in each draw. A set of numbers are then drawn (these days by a random number
generator) and are awarded prizes, with many consolation prizes often offered.
Former Lottery Games
SA Lotto - SA Lotto, previously known as Cross Lotto or X Lotto, was a
statewide lottery game played only in South Australia, and administered by South
Australian Lotteries. At its winding up, the game was played twice a week, on
Mondays and Wednesdays. Games of SA Lotto cost 30 cents plus agent's commission,
and offered a $400,000 guaranteed minimum prize for Division One. SA Lotto was
replaced with an expanded version of NSW Lotto on 2006-05-01; the game is simply
marketed as Lotto, in line with the Saturday version, replacing the SA Lotto
brand.
The draw format was the same as for the Saturday draw, with six winning numbers
and two supplementary numbers drawn from 45. SA Lotto was notable in that there
were six divisions instead of five, with an additional division for games with
four matching winning numbers, plus a supplementary number. The First Division
pool was last increased, from $300,000 to $400,000, in November 2003, at the
same time as the re-introduction of a mid-week draw on Wednesdays, which had
previously been replaced by Powerball.
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