Playing the same seven numbers every night does not build anything up. Each of the 365 draws is independent, and a set that has missed for a year faces the same 1 in 38,320,568 tonight as it did on the first night. A seven-draw ticket buys seven separate chances, not a running total.
The game at a glance
7 of 44 + 2 supplementary
Every day
Australia
1 in 38,320,568
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
All divisions →
Bonus Ball
Set for Life draws nine balls from the same pool of 44. The first seven are the winning numbers. The last two are supplementary numbers, which you never pick, and they decide four of the eight divisions: Division 2, 4, 6 and 8.
18+
Must be 18+ to play Set for Life.
Set for Life (Australia), in brief
Set for Life is the Lott's nightly draw, sold across Australia and by Lotterywest in Western Australia. A game asks you to pick seven numbers from 1 to 44. Nine balls are drawn. The first seven are the winning numbers, and the last two are supplementary numbers pulled from the same pool of 44, used to separate four of the eight divisions.
There is a draw every night of the year. Nothing rolls over, because Division 1 is a fixed annuity rather than a growing pool: $20,000 a month for 20 years, which totals $4.8 million. Payments land on the 15th of each month. Division 2 pays $5,000 a month for a year on the same schedule, and the six divisions below it are ordinary lump sums.
The sharing rule is unusual. Up to four Division 1 winners each collect the full $20,000 a month, rather than splitting one prize. Only from a fifth winner onward does the pot get divided, with $80,000 a month spread evenly across everyone who matched. Tickets follow the nightly rhythm too. A standard entry covers seven consecutive draws and can start on any day.
Prize tiers
Division 1: 7 winning numbersJackpot
$20,000 a month for 20 years, paid in full to as many as four winning entries
Division 2: 6 winning numbers + 1 supplementary
$5,000 a month for 12 months, again guaranteed to up to four winning entries
Division 3: 6 winning numbers
A lump sum, the largest of the one-off prizes
Division 4: 5 winning numbers + 1 supplementary
A lump sum in the mid range of the ladder
Division 5: 5 winning numbers
A modest lump sum
Division 6: 4 winning numbers + 1 supplementary
A small lump sum
Division 7: 4 winning numbers
A small prize, not far above the price of a game
Division 8: 3 winning numbers + 1 supplementary
The lowest division, added in the 2020 redesign
Where Set for Life (Australia) came from
A 2015 start on an 8-from-37 grid
Set for Life launched in August 2015 as the Lott's first nightly draw and its first for-life prize. The original format asked for eight numbers from 1 to 37, which put Division 1 at 1 in 38,608,020. The top prize was the same headline figure it pays now, $20,000 a month for 20 years, and the game ran seven nights a week from the beginning.
The 2020 redesign
On 23 March 2020 the game moved to seven numbers from 1 to 44. Division 1 odds shortened slightly, from 1 in 38,608,020 to 1 in 38,320,568, which is the count of seven-number combinations available from 44. The same overhaul introduced the Division 2 monthly prize and added a new bottom division for three winning numbers plus a supplementary.
Why four winners, not one
Most for-life games treat the top prize as a single pot to be split. Set for Life guarantees the full monthly amount to as many as four Division 1 entries in the same draw, which matters on a game drawn 365 times a year where duplicate winners are a real possibility. Beyond four, the guaranteed $80,000 a month is divided among however many tickets matched.
Picking numbers, honestly
The headline $4.8 million is a total, not a cheque. It is what 240 monthly payments of $20,000 add up to across 20 years, and it arrives on the 15th of each month rather than all at once. Anyone budgeting a Division 1 win should be reading the monthly figure, not the total.
Because a nightly game runs 365 draws a year, some people read a long run without a Division 1 winner as pressure building. It isn't. The odds per game sit at 1 in 38,320,568 regardless of how the last month went, and the prize does not grow while unclaimed, since it's a fixed monthly amount.
Set for Life (Australia) — frequently asked
Every night of the year. A standard entry covers seven consecutive draws and can begin on whichever day you buy it.
Up to four winners each receive the full $20,000 a month for 20 years. From five winners upward, the guaranteed $80,000 a month is divided equally, so five winners would take $16,000 each.
1 in 38,320,568 per game. That is the number of ways to choose seven numbers from 44, and it is the odds on every single nightly draw, not a cumulative figure across the week.
No. All nine balls come from the same pool of 44. The two supplementaries are simply the eighth and ninth drawn, and they can never duplicate one of the seven winning numbers.
No. Set for Life launched in August 2015 asking for eight numbers from 37. The March 2020 redesign moved it to seven from 44, added the Division 2 monthly prize, and created a new Division 8.