Lottery prizes can be huge and can relieve you of working for the rest of your life, but winning the main prize in a lottery is extremely difficult. More often than not, it will be more likely for you to get hit by a lightning strike than to win a lottery jackpot. However, there are some ways for you to increase your chances of winning by locating foreign lotteries which have slightly lower odds than the ones you’re accustomed to.
In this article, we will take a look at some low odds lotteries where you will have a better shot at getting rich. While jackpot prizes for these lotteries might be a bit lower than you expect, the upside is that they are easier to win, especially when you compare them to US Powerball and MegaMillions lotteries which have very high odds. Apart from looking at jackpot odds, we will also give details about the chances of winning some smaller prizes. Here we go!
Mini Lotto (Poland)
Polish Mini Lotto is sort of an oddball on our list, but we decided to mention it nevertheless. This is actually a lottery where you will have the highest chances of winning the jackpot, as they come to about 1 in 850,000.
However, the reason why this lottery game is called Mini Lotto is that the jackpot is relatively small, only about $630,000. It is rare for a lottery to have the main prize lower than a million dollars, but that’s the sacrifice for having better odds. The odds of winning a prize of any sort in the Polish Mini Lotto are around 1 in 124, which is not very good considering the likes of French Lotto or UK Lotto.
French Lotto
Winning a French Lotto jackpot often comes with a prize of over $21 million. The odds of getting a lottery jackpot in France are close to 1 in 19 million. Now, there are some foreign lotteries which are more generous, but the French one is very rewarding when it comes to other prizes.
You are more likely to win a smaller amount of money from a lottery in France than anywhere else in the world. Namely, the overall odds for French Lotto are 1 in 6, far better than the second-placed UK Lotto (1 in 9.3).
Swedish Lotto
The Swedish Lotto struck the right balance between giving favorable odds and huge prizes. Namely, the Swedish Lotto jackpot is usually around $23 million, while the odds for winning it are 1 in 6.7 million. This gives the Swedish Lotto the best jackpot-to-odds ratio by far.
Also, the odds for winning any of the Swedish Lotto prizes are 1 in 55, which is not as good as some major US lotteries, but is still decent.
Austrian Lotto
After Polish Mini Lotto and Swedish Lotto, the Austrian lottery has the lowest odds for winning a jackpot — 1 in 8.1 million. The Austrian Lotto also has many other prizes, and the overall odds for turning a profit while playing are 1 in 12, much better than the US MegaMillions (1 in 24) and PowerBall (1 in 24.8).
However, the downside is that the Austrian Lotto’s jackpot is not that great. It’s usually less than $10 million, which is still a huge amount, but much lower than in some other countries.
OZ Saturday Lotto
Also known as TattsLotto, this Australian lottery has the same odds for winning a jackpot like the Austrian one (1 in 8.1 million). However, the jackpot can be much higher — over $76 million. Nevertheless, OZ Saturday Lotto has some of the worst overall odds for other prizes so, unless you’re only gunning for the jackpot, you might try some other lotteries.
Irish Lotto
If you believe in the luck of the Irish, then you might try out the famous Irish Lotto and attempt to find a pot at the end of the rainbow. But putting all superstitions aside, let’s see the math for Irish lottery.
The Irish Lotto jackpot can be worth more than $16 million, which is not that high considering some other countries we mentioned on this list. However, the odds are fairly good, as they are approximately 1 in 10.7 million. If you want some lower prizes, you will be hoping to beat the odds of 29 to 1.
Conclusion
There are hundreds of foreign lotteries that you can participate in, but these six are some of the most rewarding ones in terms of odds. While the chances of you winning a jackpot will still be almost astronomical, you at least have a slightly better mathematical chance to become a millionaire than by playing popular US lotteries.
So, feel free to try some of these out, and good luck!