If only you could plan to win the lottery – your best friend gets a car, you buy an old farm yourself. Or pay the high energy costs. But who cares: Anyone who plays the lottery knows how close you can bet without winning a single euro.
Last year, the winning number 49 was the most frequently drawn in the lottery classic “6 out of 49” – closely followed by 1 and 16. The number that has been drawn least frequently since the first drawing in 1955 is 45. But it’s good that as an insider tip? Hardly anything is as unlikely as becoming a lottery millionaire.
But there are those lucky ones: in 2022 there were more than a year earlier. Nationwide, 187 new lottery millionaires raked in the longed-for prizes last year, and in 2021 there were 181 million prizes.
A Berliner becomes jackpot king
Last November, a Eurojackpot player from Berlin received the highest lottery win ever achieved in Germany of 120 million euros, as the German Lotto and Totoblock (DLTB) announced in Hanover on Wednesday. A win of more than 110 million euros, also in the Eurojackpot, went to North Rhine-Westphalia in May 2022. The third highest prize of the past year, at 45 million euros, went to Hesse in April – at “6 out of 49”.
Years ago, the mathematician and lottery expert Norbert Herrmann, who taught at the University of Hanover until 2007, explained how improbable such a million-dollar win is: Everyone believed that one day it was their turn to win, but the number of possibilities was many too big: “Each tip is equally likely. A clever mathematician also has no advantages.” And what the lucky winners do with the huge sums of money is only known in the rarest of cases – especially since the lottery companies advise extreme discretion.
3.9 billion euros in profits distributed
In 2022, most of the millions in profits went to North Rhine-Westphalia (45), followed by Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg (31 each) and Lower Saxony (15). Lottery winnings of at least 100,000 euros were transferred to winners 1,200 times in Germany – in 2021 there were 992 times. A total of 7.97 billion euros were spent on lotteries nationwide last year – a slight increase of 0.9 percent compared to 2021. “Despite the economic and geopolitical situation, Germans continued to seek their luck in 2022,” said Axel Holthaus, Managing Director of the lead lottery company Lotto Niedersachsen. Across all types of games, 3.9 billion euros in winnings were distributed.
Germany’s most popular lottery remained the classic “6 out of 49”: With a stake of around 3.84 (2021: around 4) billion euros, the lottery accounted for almost 50 percent of the total stake. “The slight decline compared to the previous year can be explained by the shorter jackpot phases,” said Holthaus. The Eurojackpot, which is offered in 18 countries, defended second place among the most popular lotteries – with stakes of around 1.76 (2021: 1.4) billion euros and a share of 22.06 percent.
As always, it was the state who benefited from the lotteries. The state budgets collected around 3.18 (2020: 3.2) billion euros in taxes and duties – for welfare, sport, culture, monument preservation and environmental protection.
One thing will change from January 18: New drawing machines for the “6aus49” lottery and new lottery balls will then be used. Sven Osthoff, also Managing Director of Lotto Niedersachsen, said: “The current machines are going into well-deserved retirement after more than 60 years and over 2,300 lottery millionaires drawn.”
