Understanding Canadian Lottery

Traditional lotteries are also in the market to increase revenues.

By the spring of 1994, all Canadian lotteries except the British Columbia Lottery Corporation are expected to participate in a new lotto game called 7/47.

This is a seven-digit lotto much like the 6/49 lotto which was introduced in 1982, except it will add one more number to the set.

The new game will indeed be a gamble because there are few successful seven-digit games in place anywhere in the world. Some lottery officials are of the opinion that the seven-digit games failed because the six-digit games were taken off the market.

Canadians have the option of choosing between the two.

Lottery officials are realistic about the almost certain loss in revenues from 6/49. Most of them are of the opinion, however, that the revenues from 7/47 will more than make up for any losses.

To some degree, they want the old game to lessen in popularity. Because more and more people are participating in 6/49, the jackpots are awarded more often; thus, the jackpot amounts are smaller than they used to be because the chance of someone winning for each drawing is more probable.

If jackpot amounts are not large enough, fewer people will lay out money on tickets because the amount is not sufficiently enticing. In addition, lottery officials think that many 6/49 players will remain loyal to their game.

They believe that 7/47 will attract new players and that the two games together will generate more revenues than did the old six-digit lotto.

British Columbia has chosen not to participate in the new lotto game. Lottery officials do not want to lose any autonomy in the lucrative lotto industry. They are fearful that their decision-making ability will be lessened if they join the other provinces in this venture.

They also entertain serious doubts about the format of the game itself, the increased price for playing 7/47 (three sets of seven numbers for two Canadian dollars, or sixty-six cents per play), and the terrible odds for the players.

On June 10, 1994, Ontario was the first to offer the new game, officially called Lotto 7. The minimum jackpot of the weekly drawing was 2.5 million Canadian dollars. The advertising campaign promoting Lotto 7 reached a cost of five million Canadian dollars by late spring of 1994, and involved some fairly sensational marketing devices.

An aircraft which wrote a huge 'seven' in smoke in the sky and a biplane-riding female wing walker are only two example of the lengths the lottery corporations will go to acquaint the public with the new game.

The same type of aggressive marketing techniques proved to be very successful in promoting Canada's lotteries in the past.

Even though the odds of winning the weekly drawing are one in twenty-one million per play, sales in Ontario for the first year of operation are projected to be one hundred seventy-five million Canadian dollars; approximately fifty-five million Canadian dollars will be allocated to hospitals, social service agencies and other projects.

Most of the remaining earnings will be awarded as jackpots.

The province of Quebec has two projects in the offing that may rival Lotto 7 in ambition. Loto-Quebec plans to enter into an agreement with an international consortium that will offer an interactive program to television viewers in their own homes.

Although Loto-Quebec is presently offering over forty interactive lotteries over cable television, the new electronic distribution system could attract as much as 80 percent of all the households in Quebec.

The consortium plans to expand the system to other provinces and countries at some point in the future.