When you buy a lottery ticket, where does the money go?

Other / Canada

Well, to the winners, obviously.  But what about after that?  What about all the money spent on losing tickets that doesn’t go back out to repay the winners? 

The Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation website has a top-level (and therefore, kinda vague) rundown of where that money ends up;

Every day, Ontario residents gain both directly and indirectly from OLG activities. By creating jobs, stimulating tourism and supporting hospitals, charity groups and cultural and recreational services, OLG is fulfilling its mandate to maximize economic benefits for the people of Ontario.

Since 1975, OLG lotteries, Casinos, Slots, and Resort Casinos have generated more than $23 billion for the benefit of the Province of Ontario. Gaming proceeds support Ontario’s hospitals, amateur sport, recreational and cultural activities, communities, provincial priority programs such as health care and education, and local and provincial charities and non-profit organizations through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

2% of the annual gross revenue from slot machines at OLG Casinos and Slots has been allocated to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for problem gambling research, treatment, prevention, and public awareness. This is more than any jurisdiction in North America.

So there you have it — hospitals, education, NPO’s — it looks like buying a losing ticket can still make you a winner.  Now if only we could use it as a charitable donation on our T1’s.  😉


15 responses to “When you buy a lottery ticket, where does the money go?”

  1. Sally says:

    Cool.

    Was the draw last night or today?

    As you can tell….

    I dont really play

  2. Freeslurpee says:

    For Western Canada:

    http://www.wclc.com/FAQ/

    Q: Where does the money go?

    A: Of every dollar spent on Lottery tickets, approximately 53.0 percent goes back to players in the form of prizes. Lottery retail commissions are approximately 6.4 percent of sales. Western Canada Lottery Corporation operating expenses are approximately 7.1 percent of sales with ticket printing accounting for an additional 1.3 percent. The remaining 32.2 percent is revenue returned to WCLC’s members – the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and associate members Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

    Revenue is based on sales from each member province or territory. Each provincial and territorial government establishes its own priorities for disbursement of Lottery funds.

  3. Andrew says:

    Can’t you cough up the link?

    • I believe all lotteries should be run their provincial Goverments, and profits should go to those Provincial Governments.
      Millions of dollars are currently going to private individuals.

  4. K McKeown says:

    in dollars and cents, where does the lottery?

  5. those thievs says:

    The government takes over 30%

    They take money from every monthly phone bill, every purchase you make and sale and basically own you and everything you think you are doing in the name of freedom.

  6. Velia Salomon says:

    Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write on my blog something like that. Can I include a fragment of your post to my site?

  7. Casper says:

    I think it’s time for the Government to show the Accounting books to Canadians. How can we have so much money going into their coffers and STILL have a issues with underfunded social programs, the deficient, union disputes in the medical and education sectors, and child poverty.

    I think the system is broken and no longer relevant to the people it’s suppose to support.

    Why not create a lotto that picks a number of those that have bought a ticket, then it guarantees more people will win. That would not only gives a better chance to get above the poverty line, it would enable people to better and enrich their lives and support the economy en masse.

    How rich does the rich need to be anyways?

    • R Neil says:

      We are paying taxes on everything we buy, Why not make more winners, that way we could spend more.

  8. Guest says:

    Update since 2008:
    WCLC now pays out 51% of winnings (was 53%)
    and govts keep 33.7% (was 32.2%)
    So more revenue for govt out of the lotteries… I wonder what the 20 or 50 year history of the lottery taxation & winnings is…

    @Casper, picking a winner from only playing tickets would lead to suspicion over how, and accusations of hand-picking the winners themselves. Physically picking out of 49 balls is do-able, but picking out of millions of ticket stubs isn’t, and any random-number computer picking program never truly random & therefore suspicious.

    • Doug says:

      Curios about a enviromental lottory idea I mentioned back in the late 1980’s to the government when I inquired about obtaining a licence or charity corp.to promote a our own lotto so we could get involved withgov’tand enviromental organizations.the gentlan I talked to was very keen on our idea and I told him we were going to have prizes consisting of hundreds of trips.exotic auto’a and multiple cash prizes.a lotto with this format did not exist at that time.but within a year or so our idea as were being used and s by lotto corp/hospitals/ and charities. Always curious on who he passed our idea to .in fairness to this gentleman he did mention I should go andtalkto the western lotto offices,but I did not

  9. Dave says:

    Well, here in BC, Lotto 6/49 has been running ad’s saying that they now sponsor closed-captioning of TV shows. Funny, because all the shows the 6/49 claim to pay for them to be closed-captioned are American TV shows that are ALREADY closed-captioned. I was under the impression lotto proceeds were supposed to go to charities, health care, etc., NOT to sponsor a private corporation! I’ll never spend another $3 on a 6/49 ticket again after seeing those commercials.

  10. Lois Stewart says:

    Okay, so where do all of our tax dollars go?

  11. Lois Stewart says:

    Okay, so where do all of our tax dollars go? …and no, I did not already say this!

  12. Todd e says:

    The government’s been lying and cheating us out of our money ever since I was born the problem with our country has nobody stands up and nobody marches and not Millions against the government until we all stand up and say enough is enough and stop paying our taxes or at least ask where all our money is going and break it down to buy the penny by Penny they will always do this


















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