It must be possible to win the lottery. Many people think that – and try it. The probability is extremely small, but they do exist, the lottery millionaires. But only one always wins.
Hanover – If you paint your crosses on the lottery ticket, anything is still possible. At that moment, millions are waving, you imagine what you could do with the big win – the longed-for trip, your own apartment. Or even a new heat pump for the heating. At the moment of filling it out you seem to have everything in your own hands – and then somehow the others always win. Anyone who plays the lottery knows that hardly anything is as unlikely as this: becoming a lottery millionaire. But there are those lucky ones, even if there were fewer of them last year than in 2022.
On average, a good three tipsters in Germany became new millionaires every week last year – a total of 179 people won millions, the German Lotto and Toto Block (DLTB) announced on Thursday in Hanover. A year earlier there were even 187.
The highest amount went to Schleswig-Holstein
A Eurojackpot bettor from Schleswig-Holstein won the highest sum of the year, 120 million euros, last June. At least 117 million euros went to Hamburg in August, and a lucky person from Bremen won 107 million euros – both also at Eurojackpot.
The mathematician and lottery expert Norbert Herrmann, who taught at the University of Hanover until 2007, explained years ago how unlikely such a million-dollar win is: Everyone believed that it would be their turn to win at some point, but the number of possibilities was far too large : “Every tip is equally likely.”
It was only in November that Federal Drug Commissioner Burkhard Blienert warned: “Gambling rarely makes its participants happy.” Because gambling can also become an addiction. Player and youth protection as well as gambling addiction prevention have been “firmly anchored in the social concepts and therefore in the value structure of the state lottery companies for over 70 years,” said the managing director of the Lotto Niedersachsen company, which is the leading company in the DLTB, Sven Osthoff. “It is undisputed that the fight against illegal gambling providers in Germany must continue to be stepped up.”
Most of the millions in winnings went to North Rhine-Westphalia
In 2023, most of the millions in profits flowed to North Rhine-Westphalia (37), followed by Baden-Württemberg (30) and Lower Saxony (26). Large winnings of at least 100,000 euros were transferred to 1,231 winners – in 2022 there were 1,200 winners. In total, around 8.2 billion euros were spent on lotteries in Germany last year, 2.9 percent more than in 2022. From the perspective of Axel Holthaus, also managing director of Lotto Niedersachsen, people can use lotteries to “escape everyday life, dream or even find happiness.” Around 4.0 billion euros in winnings were distributed across all types of games – after 3.9 billion euros a year earlier.
Germany's most popular lottery remained the classic gambling game “6 out of 49”: with a stake of around 3.8 (2022: 3.84) billion euros, the lottery accounted for 46 percent of the total stake. A year earlier the proportion was just under 50 percent. Since January 2023, new drawing devices have been in use for “6 out of 49” and the super number – with an additional camera inside the drum. The Eurojackpot defended second place among the most popular lotteries with stakes of around 2.0 (2022: 1.76) billion euros and a share of almost 24 percent of the total stakes. A year earlier, this share was just over 22 percent.
3.28 billion euros in taxes and duties for the state
As always, only one person reliably benefited from the lotteries – the state. Last year, state budgets collected around 3.28 (2022: 3.18) billion euros in taxes and fees – for welfare, sport, art, culture, monument preservation and environmental protection.
In the classic “6 out of 49” last year, the winning number 19 was drawn most often, followed by the winning numbers 22, 33 and 25. The least frequently drawn from the lottery drum was 46. The number that has been drawn most rarely since the first drawing in 1955 is number 13. But that's hardly enough as an insider tip for lottery players. dpa
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