Sticking to 1 to 31 does nothing to your chance of matching six numbers from 42, since every combination is equally likely. It only matters if you win. Because the pool stops at 42, the birthday effect bites harder here than in a 49-ball game: just eleven numbers sit above the calendar range, and they get marked noticeably less often.
The game at a glance
6 of 42 + Lucky Number
Wed · Sat
Switzerland
1 in 31,474,716
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
All divisions →
1 of 6
Lucky Number: you pick it yourself, drawn from a separate pool.
18+
Must be 18+ to play Swiss Lotto.
Swiss Lotto, in brief
Swiss Lotto is Switzerland's national number game, sold by Swisslos across the German-speaking cantons, Ticino and Liechtenstein, and by Loterie Romande in the French-speaking cantons. One line asks for six numbers from 1 to 42 plus one Lucky Number from 1 to 6, which comes from its own set of six balls. A line costs CHF 2.50, and every ticket has to carry at least two of them.
Draws are held Wednesday and Saturday evenings under the supervision of a public officer, and the same result counts for both operators. The jackpot rolls from draw to draw until at least one line matches all six numbers plus the Lucky Number. Nothing in the rules forces a payout, so a long run without a winner can push the top prize into the tens of millions of francs.
Two mechanisms make the Swiss game unusual. Every receipt is assigned a free rePLAY number from 1 to 13 by a random generator, and if it matches the one drawn you get your stake back as a fresh entry. Behind the prize table sits a Booster Fund, which collects the money from ranks nobody won that night and pays it back out later to lift the opening jackpot of a new run.
Prize tiers
6 numbers + Lucky NumberJackpot
The jackpot, which rolls over with no cap and is split evenly between all winning lines
6 numbers, no Lucky Number
Targeted at CHF 1,000,000, the ceiling this rank is topped up to whenever its own pool falls short
5 numbers + Lucky Number
A pari-mutuel share, usually a four-figure sum in francs
5 numbers, no Lucky Number
Capped at CHF 1,000 per winning line, with the overflow pushed down to the rank above
4 numbers + Lucky Number
A pari-mutuel share, generally a low three-figure amount
4 numbers, no Lucky Number
A pari-mutuel share, usually well under CHF 100
3 numbers + Lucky Number
A small pari-mutuel share, a few times the price of a line
3 numbers, no Lucky Number
The smallest rank, usually around CHF 10, and the one that takes the biggest slice of the lower-rank pool
Where Swiss Lotto came from
The 1970 start
The first Swiss Lotto draw was held on 10 January 1970, put together by four organisations at once: the Sport-Toto-Gesellschaft, the Interkantonale Landeslotterie, SEVA and the Loterie Romande. The reason was blunt. Swiss players had been crossing the border to buy German lottery tickets, and the money was leaving the country. The opening formula was 6 out of 40, and a line cost 50 centimes.
Three different pools
The pool did not stay at 40 for long. On 7 April 1979 it widened to 42 numbers and the game gained a jackpot for the first time. Three weeks later a Swiss player collected the first million-franc prize. A second widening on 4 January 1986 took the pool to 45 numbers, where it stayed for 27 years, and a Wednesday draw joined the Saturday one on 8 January 1997.
The 2013 rebuild
Today's format arrived on 12 January 2013. The pool shrank back to 42 numbers, the old Zusatzzahl was scrapped, and the Lucky Number appeared as a separate one-from-six pick that the player chooses. Pricing moved to CHF 2.50 a line with a two-line minimum. The rebuild stretched the top-tier odds from 1 in 8,145,060 to 1 in 31,474,716, which is why Swiss jackpots now climb far higher than they used to.
Picking numbers, honestly
The Lucky Number is drawn in a second phase from its own set of six balls, not from the 42-ball drum. That is why it can repeat a number already among the main six, and why picking it is a flat one-in-six call no matter what you did with the rest of the line.
rePLAY is not something you can play better. The number from 1 to 13 is stuck on your receipt by a random generator at no extra cost, so roughly one receipt in thirteen wins its stake back as a fresh entry. Nothing you mark on the slip changes which number you are given.
Swiss Lotto — frequently asked
A number from 1 to 6 that the player picks, drawn from a separate set of six balls after the main six. You need it for the jackpot, and it splits every other rank into a higher and a lower version.
At least two. A line costs CHF 2.50, so the minimum stake is CHF 5.
Yes. Swisslos sells it in German-speaking Switzerland, Ticino and Liechtenstein, and Loterie Romande sells it in the French-speaking cantons, where it goes by Swiss Loto and the Lucky Number is the numéro chance. There is one draw for both, and a winning line pays the same wherever the ticket was bought.
No. It carries over draw after draw until at least one line matches six numbers plus the Lucky Number. Once the rolled-up amount passes CHF 10 million, a tenth of each later draw's top-rank allocation is diverted into the Booster Fund, which is used to prop up the opening jackpot of the next run.
No. It opened in 1970 as 6 from 40, moved to 42 in 1979, then to 45 in 1986. The pool came back to 42 plus a Lucky Number on 12 January 2013.