If you're looking up how to play Lotto Max, here's the short answer. Lotto Max is a national lottery game in Canada, drawn on Tuesdays and Fridays. Each draw produces seven winning numbers from 1 to 52, plus one bonus ball. Your numbers are compared against that draw, and matching three or more of the seven winning numbers puts you in one of the game's prize tiers, several of which also bring the bonus ball into play. The rest of this guide fills in the parts that tend to trip people up: how the tiers are named, what the odds actually say, and how to check a ticket against the right draw.
Seven winning numbers and a bonus ball, on Tuesdays and Fridays
Lotto Max is run nationally by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation (ILC), and tickets are sold through Canada's regional lottery corporations. The details of buying a ticket and getting your numbers onto it come from the corporation serving your province or territory. This guide picks up from there, with what happens once the draw is made.
The draw itself is easy to picture. On each draw day, seven winning numbers come out of a pool numbered 1 to 52, and one bonus ball is drawn alongside them. Every set of numbers you play is likewise seven numbers from 1 to 52, and that's the heart of how to play Lotto Max: after a draw, the question is simply how many of your seven are among the winning seven.
How the prize tiers get their names
In this guide, Lotto Max tiers are labelled for what they match, which makes them easier to read than they first look. "Match 5" means five of your numbers are among the seven winning numbers. A "+ bonus" on the end adds one condition: "Match 5 + bonus" is five of the winning numbers plus the bonus ball.
In the game facts, the tiers run from Match 7 at the top down to Match 3. Match 6, Match 5, Match 4 and Match 3 each come in a plain version and a "+ bonus" version. Match 7 is listed without a "+ bonus" version: it means all seven winning numbers, and it's the top tier in the table.
Lotto Max odds, from Match 7 down to Match 3
Below are the prize tiers in lottery.fm's Lotto Max game facts. Each odds figure is quoted exactly as the game facts give it; the official lottery's prize table states what each one is measured against, which isn't necessarily a single set of seven numbers. The facts are dated October 3, 2026, and describe the current format: seven numbers from 1 to 52 plus a bonus ball.
| Prize tier | Odds |
|---|---|
| Match 7 | 1 in 33,446,140 |
| Match 6 + bonus | 1 in 4,778,020 |
| Match 6 | 1 in 108,591 |
| Match 5 + bonus | 1 in 36,197 |
| Match 5 | 1 in 1,684 |
| Match 4 + bonus | 1 in 1,010 |
| Match 4 | 1 in 72.2 |
| Match 3 + bonus | 1 in 72.2 |
| Match 3 | 1 in 7.0 |
Here's how to read it.
Match 7 is the jackpot tier. Its odds, 1 in 33,446,140, are the same figure the game facts give for the jackpot. That's a genuine long shot, and no way of choosing numbers moves it.
The overall odds are 1 in 5.8. That's the figure for winning a prize of any kind, rather than landing in one particular tier. It's easy to read as a schedule, as though a prize were bound to turn up after a certain number of plays. It isn't one. Each draw is random and independent, so a long stretch without a prize and prizes in back-to-back draws are both possible.
Prize amounts are a separate matter. The game facts behind this guide list odds for each tier, not prize amounts. What each tier paid in a given draw is on that draw's own page on lottery.fm, in its "Division payouts" table.
Under the current format, these odds apply to every draw alike. Nothing that happened in earlier draws shifts them, and neither does the size of the prize on offer: the odds come from the numbers in play, not the money at stake. Buying more plays gives you more entries in a draw, at proportionally more cost, while the figures in the table stay exactly where they are.
Checking your numbers after a Tuesday or Friday draw
Checking a Lotto Max ticket is quick once you know the order to do it in.
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Start with the draw date. Tuesday's and Friday's draws are separate, each with its own winning numbers, so make sure you're looking at the one your ticket is for. The Lotto Max page on lottery.fm shows the latest draw first, with links through to past draws, each on its own dated page.
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Count the main matches. Count how many of your seven numbers appear among the seven winning numbers. Leave the bonus ball aside for this step.
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Bring in the bonus ball where it applies. If your count is three, four, five or six, look at the bonus ball as well: it decides whether you're in the plain tier or its "+ bonus" partner. A count of seven is Match 7, the top tier.
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Put a name to the result. Six main matches plus the bonus ball, for example, is "Match 6 + bonus." Find that tier in the odds table above, or its row in the draw's "Division payouts" table, where it's listed as "6 + Bonus."
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Let the checker count for you, if you prefer. Instead of counting by hand, you can enter your numbers in the lottery.fm ticket checker.
Worth knowing: a Lotto Max draw page on lottery.fm can also list MaxMillions and MaxPlus numbers. The steps and the odds table in this guide cover only the seven winning numbers, the bonus ball and the tiers listed above.
Lotto Max mix-ups that are easy to make
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Folding regional games into Lotto Max. Encore, Extra, Tag and Western Extra are separate games run by individual regional lottery corporations, not part of the national Lotto Max draw. On lottery.fm, their winning numbers appear in a separate "Regional add-ons" section of the draw page, but they aren't Lotto Max prize tiers, and their rules belong to the corporation that runs each one.
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Reading an old result through today's format. The figures in this guide describe the format marked as current on October 3, 2026. The Lotto Max archive on lottery.fm reaches back well before that, and an older draw may have run under an earlier format, so for a past draw, go by that draw's own page rather than the table here.
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Treating number frequency as a signal. The number statistics on lottery.fm show which numbers have come up more and less often in past draws. That's trivia rather than a forecast: every draw is independent, and past frequency doesn't change the odds of the next one.
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Assuming a prize counts as taxable income. Lottery winnings are not taxed in Canada (Canada Revenue Agency); income later earned on them, such as interest, is taxable. That's general information rather than tax advice, and the CRA or a tax professional can speak to your own situation.
Lotto Max is best treated as entertainment, played within a budget you set before you buy. If gambling has stopped being fun, support is available through the problem gambling helpline for your province or territory — the Responsible Gambling Council lists every one on its Help for Canadians page.
Always confirm winning numbers, prize amounts, and deadlines with the official operator before acting on a ticket — the operator's published results are the only ones that count.
Sources
- lottery.fm, "Lotto Max — game facts," facts as of October 3, 2026: Lotto Max game facts on lottery.fm
