Sticking to numbers 1 through 31 doesn't hurt your chance of winning, since every combination of seven is equally likely. What it does is raise the chance of splitting the jackpot, because birthday-based tickets cluster on the low numbers and leave 32 through 52 comparatively unclaimed.
The game at a glance
7 of 52 + Bonus
Tue · Fri
Canada
1 in 33,446,140 (per $6 play)
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
Bonus Number
A Bonus Number is drawn from the same pool after the seven main numbers. Players don't pick it; it only comes into play for the second-tier and other bonus prize levels.
18+
Must be 18+ (19+ in some provinces) to play Lotto Max.
Lotto Max, in brief
Lotto Max is Canada's national big-jackpot lottery, run by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation and sold through the regional lottery organisations in every province and territory. A $6 play asks you to pick seven numbers from 1 to 52, and the terminal then adds three more quick-pick lines automatically, so every play enters the draw four times.
Draws happen Tuesday and Friday nights. The jackpot starts at $10 million and climbs each draw until someone matches all seven numbers, up to a cap of $90 million. A Bonus Number is drawn alongside the main seven; it isn't something you choose, but matching it upgrades several of the lower prize tiers.
Big jackpots trigger side prizes rather than growing forever. Once the jackpot reaches $50 million, separate MaxMillions draws of $1 million each are added and keep accumulating until they're won, and every draw also carries MaxPlus prizes of $100,000 for each million in that night's jackpot.
Prize tiers
7 numbersJackpot
The jackpot, split evenly among all winning selections
6 numbers + Bonus
A share of the second-tier prize pool, often several hundred thousand dollars
6 numbers, no Bonus
A share of a smaller prize pool, typically a few thousand dollars
5 numbers + Bonus
A share of a prize pool, usually in the hundreds of dollars
5 numbers, no Bonus
A share of a prize pool, usually well under a hundred dollars
4 numbers + Bonus
A modest pool-based prize
4 numbers, no Bonus
A small fixed cash prize
3 numbers + Bonus
A small fixed cash prize
3 numbers, no Bonus
A free play for a future draw
Where Lotto Max came from
Built to replace Lotto Super 7
Lotto Max launched on September 25, 2009 as the successor to Lotto Super 7, keeping the pick-seven format that set Canadian jackpot games apart from the pick-six games common elsewhere. From the start, a single play bought multiple lines rather than one, and the MaxMillions mechanism was there to spread money into $1 million side prizes once the jackpot grew large.
A second weekly draw
For its first decade the game drew once a week, on Fridays. In May 2019 a Tuesday draw was added, doubling the number of draws and speeding up how quickly jackpots roll toward the cap.
The April 2026 matrix
The biggest overhaul came on April 14, 2026. The number pool widened from 50 to 52, the play price rose from $5 to $6, and each play went from three lines to four. The jackpot cap moved from $80 million to $90 million, and MaxPlus prizes of $100,000 joined the existing MaxMillions draws. Per line the wider pool made the jackpot harder to hit, but the extra line kept the odds per play close to where they were, at 1 in 33,446,140.
Picking numbers, honestly
Hot and cold number charts have no predictive power here. The machine has no memory, so a number that hasn't appeared in twenty draws carries exactly the same odds as one drawn last Friday.
You only choose one of the four lines on a Lotto Max play. The other three are quick picks generated by the terminal, and they win at exactly the same rate as chosen numbers do, which is a live, twice-weekly demonstration that number selection strategies add nothing.
Lotto Max — frequently asked
No. The Bonus Number is drawn by the machine after the seven main numbers. It exists only to upgrade certain prize tiers, such as 6 + Bonus, and never affects the jackpot itself.
Once the jackpot reaches $50 million, separate draws of $1 million each are added on top of the main draw. Each MaxMillions prize has its own seven-number draw, and unwon ones carry over until someone claims them.
It's built into the ticket. A $6 play includes the seven numbers you choose plus three quick-pick lines, and all four are separate entries in the draw. That's why the quoted jackpot odds of 1 in 33,446,140 are per play rather than per line.
No. The game used a 7-of-50 matrix from its 2009 launch until April 2026, when the pool grew to 52 numbers, the price moved to $6, and each play gained a fourth line.
The main jackpot stops growing at $90 million. Money that would have pushed it higher flows into extra MaxMillions and MaxPlus prizes instead, so big-jackpot draws come with dozens of side prizes.
Official tickets are sold only in Canada, through the provincial and territorial lottery organisations and their websites. There's no official channel for buying from abroad.