Keeping every pick under 32 so the numbers match birthdays doesn't change your odds against the 49-ball pool, because every five-number combination is equally likely. It only raises the chance that a win gets shared, since dates are the most commonly chosen numbers in Canada as everywhere else.
The game at a glance
5 of 49 + Grand Number
Mon · Thu
Canada
1 in 13,348,188
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
All divisions →
1 of 7
Grand Number: you pick it yourself, drawn from a separate pool.
18+
Must be 18+ to play Daily Grand in most provinces, and 19+ in British Columbia and Atlantic Canada.
Daily Grand, in brief
Daily Grand is a national Canadian draw coordinated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation and sold through the regional operators, from OLG in Ontario to Atlantic Lottery on the east coast. A $3 play asks you to pick five numbers from 1 to 49, then one Grand Number from 1 to 7 that comes out of its own separate set of balls. Matching all six wins the top prize.
Draws are held Monday and Thursday nights. Nothing rolls over here. The top prize is fixed at $1,000 a day for life, or a $7 million lump sum, and the second tier pays $25,000 a year for life or $500,000 up front. Because the amounts are set in advance rather than fed by ticket sales, Daily Grand never builds the headline jackpots that Lotto Max or 6/49 do.
The Grand Number is where the game's shape shows. Match it on its own and you get a free play, so the lowest tier costs nothing to collect and the ladder has nine rungs in total. Six of the nine tiers require the Grand Number, which is why a ticket that misses every main number can still be worth something. EXTRA or ENCORE can be added for a dollar as a separate side game.
Prize tiers
5 numbers + Grand NumberJackpot
$1,000 a day for life, or a $7,000,000 lump sum
5 numbers, no Grand Number
$25,000 a year for life, or a $500,000 lump sum
4 numbers + Grand Number
A fixed $1,000
4 numbers, no Grand Number
A fixed $500
3 numbers + Grand Number
A fixed $100
3 numbers, no Grand Number
A fixed $20
2 numbers + Grand Number
A fixed $10
1 number + Grand Number
A fixed $4
Grand Number only
A free play on a future draw
Where Daily Grand came from
A 2016 addition to Canada's national games
Daily Grand went on sale on 18 October 2016 and held its first draw two days later, on 20 October. It joined Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max as the third game run nationally through the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation rather than by a single province. A play has cost $3 from the start, and the twice-weekly Monday and Thursday schedule has held since launch.
Why the second prize matters
Most for-life games pay one enormous top prize and then drop straight to small cash. Daily Grand keeps a second annuity on the ladder: matching all five main numbers without the Grand Number pays $25,000 a year for life, or $500,000 as a lump sum. That tier comes in at 1 in 2,224,698, which is roughly six times more reachable than the top prize, since only the single Grand Number separates them.
The lump sum is not always optional
Both for-life prizes advertise a choice between the annuity and cash, but the choice can disappear. When more than one ticket wins the same for-life category in a draw, the operators pay out the lump sum value and split it, because the annuity is written for a single recipient. So a shared $1,000-a-day win becomes a divided share of $7 million rather than two lifetimes of daily payments.
Picking numbers, honestly
A Grand Number of 7 is not harder to hit than a Grand Number of 3. The pool holds seven balls and each has a 1 in 7 chance every draw, whatever came up on Monday. The same goes for repeats. The Grand Number can land on the same value two draws running without anything unusual happening.
A prize called for life still has a defined value on the operator's books. Daily Grand publishes the top prize as $1,000 a day for life alongside a $7 million cash figure, and that cash figure is what actually funds it. Reading the annuity as unlimited money misreads the game. It is a fixed pot paid slowly.
Daily Grand — frequently asked
1 in 13,348,188. That's the 1,906,884 ways to pick five numbers from 49, multiplied by the seven possible Grand Numbers.
No. Both for-life tiers carry a cash alternative, $7 million for the top prize and $500,000 for the second. If two or more tickets win the same tier in one draw, the cash value is used automatically and split between them.
You win a free play, so a ticket that misses all five main numbers can still return the entry rather than nothing. It's the bottom rung of the nine-tier ladder and the only one that doesn't pay cash.
Yes. It runs nationally through the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, sold by OLG in Ontario, Loto-Québec, WCLC across the Prairies and the North, BCLC, and Atlantic Lottery. Tickets are redeemed in the province where they were bought.
No. Those add-ons cost an extra dollar and run as separate side games with their own numbers and their own prizes. They leave the 5-of-49-plus-Grand-Number draw completely untouched.