South African National Lottery: Detailed Review

How to Play South African National Lottery

As we stated before, Ithuba National Lottery offers a variety of lottery games. The game we will be focusing on is LOTTO. It’s a number based game where you choose the numbers beforehand. You win if the 3 of the numbers you chose match with the selected numbers.

To get started you need to purchase a ticket from any official retailer. You can participate in multiple boards on the ticket up to 8 boards. Originally, there used to be 1 to 49 numbers on the board. From 2017 onwards, each board has 52 numbers. 

You can play the South African National lottery in 2 ways. One method we’ve already talked about is buying a ticket from an official retailer. The other method is playing online. You can visit the official site for Ithuba National Lottery and play LOTTO from there as well.

If you decide to purchase the ticket from a retailer, you need to pay individually to play on each board. You can use a pencil or a pen. You cross off the number you choose. To play LOTTO PLUS 1 or LOTTO PLUS 2, mark that from the top of the ticket.

Once you’re done with everything head back to the retailer and submit the ticket with your choices there. This will allow the retailer to upload the inputs to the online system. You will get a receipt for your submission and this is going to let you know whether you win or lose when the results are announced.

If you’d like to enjoy the whole thing from your home, you can visit the Ithuba National Lottery website. You can also visit any of the South African online casinos to buy the lottery ticket. It’s much easier and more convenient for those who don’t like to do things manually. South African National Lottery offers a total of 8 games. The most popular amongst these would be the PowerBall. It’s similar to regular LOTTO with a slight change of rules but much better payouts. 

You can also choose the numbers at random if you’d like to tempt your luck. This randomizing option is available for both online and offline lotteries. You can use any online portal to randomly choose a set of numbers.

Rules of South African National Lottery

Any game that’s under the South African National Lottery follows strict rules and guidelines. To properly master the game you need to be aware of the rules. This is true for lotteries all across the world, not just South Africa. Let’s go over the rules of South African National Lottery so that you can maximize the chances for you to win real money. 

Odds to Win the Prizes

Odds are what will determine whether you win or lose in a luck-based game like lotteries. This is true for other games like the best online slots. It’s not like understanding the odds will improve it. But it’s good to stay informed. Although the number of prizes isn’t that high, you can still win a fair amount. Here we have listed the odds for you so that you can get a better understanding of the situation. 

• All 6 numbers have odds of 1 in 20,358,520

• 5 main numbers along with bonus have odds of 1 in 3,393,087.

• 5 main numbers only have odds of 1 in 75,402.

• 4 main numbers along with bonus only have odds of 1 in 30,161.

• 4 main numbers only have odds of 1 in 1,371.

• 3 main numbers along with bonus only odds of 1 in 1028.

• 3 main numbers only have odds of 1 in 72.

• 2 main numbers along with bonus only have odds of 1 in 96.

Price of South African National Lottery Tickets

It’s a no-brainer that you first need to buy tickets for the South African National Lottery to participate. Otherwise, how do you plan to match the numbers you think are going to win? Well now that you know a bit more about the odds, it’s time to get started playing. But how much is it going to cost you?

The tickets will have 8 rectangles or 8 boards.  You need to select your numbers in these boards. You can play on as many boards as you want. Each board will set you back R5.00. You can also play LOTTO PLUS 1 and LOTTO PLUS 2 for an additional R2.50 each.

Let’s take a look at an example. You are eligible for a prize if you get at least 3 numbers right. So you can choose from 3 numbers all the way up to 6 numbers. If you’re playing LOTTO PLUS 1 you get the chance to mark 4 numbers for a chance to get 3 correct.

If you manage to get all 6 numbers right you will win the jackpot. The odds for that are pretty high. But it’s not totally impossible. So keep trying till you make it. If you’re playing online, you will have to buy all of this in an automated ticket that you’ll pay the same price for. The advantage of this is not having to visit a retailer to buy the ticket and submit it to them afterwards.

South African National Lottery Jackpot

Let’s face it. The main reason you’re here reading this guide is that you want to know whether you can win the jackpot or not. Or perhaps you're curious about the size of the jackpot, which varies as it's typically a percentage of the winning pool. There isn’t really a fixed value to it, so the amount can fluctuate significantly depending on the game and player activity.

If you manage to get all 6 numbers right you’ll win the jackpot which is a whopping 73% of the prize pool. This is the biggest winning in jackpot that we’ve seen in a very long time. For 5 numbers the prize would be 4% of the winning pool which is much less compared to the jackpot. Those who manage to hit 4 numbers will get 8.4%. If you manage to hit below this you won’t get any money, but you will get tickets worth R50.00. 

Biggest Win Made

The odds of hitting a jackpot being so high should make you understand why there aren’t that many winners in South African National Lottery. But there are some people who have done it. so, let’s take a look at that. The largest win ever recorded from the South African National Lotto was R110,000,000. This was won by 4 players who received R27.5 million each. Considering the price of the tickets, it’s a lot.

Results of South African National Lottery

To inform players whether they have won, there are 2 draws for the South African National Lottery. These draws take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays. You can buy tickets up to 8:30 PM of any draw date! You can see the draw being broadcasted on SABC 2 on both days around 20:56 CAT. The results are also published on the website within a few minutes. Having an online platform allows you to check the results even when you’re on the go.

How to Claim South African National Lottery Prizes

Depending on how much you win, the method for claiming your prize will vary. If you win up to R50 you can claim it at any retailer. If you win between R51 and R5,000 you will have to collect the prize from the participating retailer. These two methods will give you the prizes in cash and you’ll get them immediately. 

If you’ve won between R5,001 and R49,999 you will have to collect your prize from the National Lottery Payment Centres. For more than R50,000 you will have to visit the National Lottery Regional Offices. It might take up to 72 hours to deliver the prizes via EFT.

Taxes of These Prizes

The best thing about the South African National Lottery has to be the fact that there are no taxes. No matter what the amount of your winnings are, there are no payable taxes for the winnings. They are not considered as capital gains, so they have no taxes on them! 

The exemption of taxes from lottery winnings is why lottery is so popular in South Africa. If you don’t have any taxes to pay, with a bit of luck you can change your life without paying a price.

Our Opinion on South African National Lottery

South African National Lottery is considered one of the best lotteries in all of Africa. Although there are other games that pay more than LOTTO, they all fall under the umbrella of the South African National Lottery. We hope this guide helped you understand the ins and outs of the game so that you too can enjoy!

South African National Lottery FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions that you may also have.