Lotto
Lotto is one of Finland's most popular lottery games. Each Saturday at 22:15 Finnish time, seven numbers (and one bonus number) are drawn out of 40. If you match all 7 of your chosen numbers with the drawn numbers, you win the jackpot. Other prize categories exist for matching fewer numbers, detailed in the table below.
Prize Categories
| Match | Prize Level | Typical Winnings |
|---|---|---|
| 7 correct | Jackpot | From one million to several million euros |
| 6 + bonus number | Second Tier | Around 100,000 € |
| 6 correct | Third Tier | Around 2,000 € |
| 5 correct | Fourth Tier | Around 50 € |
| 4 correct | Fifth Tier | 10 € |
| 3 + bonus number | Sixth Tier | 2 € |
Lotto Plus is an optional add-on that costs an extra 0.50 € per line and can multiply non-jackpot prizes by five if you match the Plus number. If you don't match any main numbers, a correct Plus number alone gives you 5 €.
Note: The actual prize amounts in the second and third tiers (6+1 and 6 correct) depend on the total prize pool and number of winners in each draw.
The calculator below allows you to compute expected gain and other figures for the Lotto game.Chance of Winning Jackpot
Game Calculator
Expected Value
€0.00
(€0.00 per €)
Standard Deviation
€0.00
(€0.00 per € spent)
Break-Even Probability
0.00%
Total Loss Probability
0.00%
Combined Jackpot Probability
0.000000%
Strategies
Strategies to Optimize Your Returns
There is no way to improve your odds of winning the lottery. Some people sell "martingales" to pick winning numbers. This is a scam and a waste of money. The only way to improve your expected gains is to use coverings, which is very expensive and improves the expected gain only marginally. In Finland, you can use "haravat" and "järjestelmät" via Veikkaus to do this automatically (although to be precise those only approximate coverings, since real coverings would be too expensive for most players). Here are some basic guidelines:
- Lotto Plus: The extra 0.50 € per line typically increases your relative expected value, thanks to the multiplier on non-jackpot prizes and the guaranteed 5 € if you match only the Plus number. The expected gain is still negative, but less so!
- Jackpot Size: Higher jackpots can slightly improve your expected return, but since winning the jackpot is very unlikely, this increase in expected return is largely an illusion.
- Number Choice: Every combination of 7 numbers from 40 has the same probability of winning. However, quick picks or truly random numbers can reduce the chance of splitting a big prize with others who pick common numerical patterns.
- Using Haravat: If you are going to spend a few hundreds of euros, using haravat or järjestelmät (systems) will improve your expected gain.
Overall, our recommendation is to always plays lotto plus, as this will significantly improve your return.
Comparison with Jokeri. Jokeri has significantly higher expected return, and a variance of the same order as lotto (after normalizing by the price of the ticket). Most players would do well to prefer Jokeri over Lotto.