CTV Vancouver
Friday's record-breaking $110 million Lotto Max jackpot has some Metro Vancouver players calling for changes to a rule that allows a set of numbers to win a maximum of only $60 million.
Lotto Max splits up any money over $60 million into separate, $1 million prizes called MaxMillions.
"It's designed to allow the players to feel like they can dream about it, but it's not too much that they wouldn't know how to manage it," said Angela Law of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.
"It's essentially giving us more chances to make people millionaires in Canada."
As with most jackpots over $60 million, Law said more people are buying tickets "because the frenzy and the anticipation and the dreaming really get big."
Now, some of those players say they want a chance to win the entire thing.
"I want the big, big, big," said one player. "Sixty is not enough. Let's go up to $100 million, $150 million."
Another cited the United States' Powerball jackpots, which can reader the hundreds of millions.
According psychologist Dr. Joti Samra, removing the cap could drive up business.
"From a psychological end, we know that the larger that end game is, the larger the outcome, the more strongly our emotions go around that," Samra said, "so certainly from a marketing standpoint and from a purchasing standpoint, that likely would increase the frenzy."
But the BCLC says Canada's population can't sustain a limitless Powerball-type lottery, and if only one set of numbers is drawn, there are fewer winners.
"I'd rather have it spread around," said a woman buying her ticket Friday. "I don't need that much money...Sixty is enough."
With files from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson
A record-breaking lottery jackpot could be won on Friday night.
Lotto Max’s main jackpot is at $60 million, where it always gets capped as previous draws are not won. Once the lottery hits $60 million, additional revenue is used to create $1-million prize draws (called Maxmillion draws).
article continues below
Friday’s Lotto Max will feature the $60-million main prize, along with 50 draws for 50 $1-million prizes — making for a $110-million night.
The draw will be held at 7:30 p.m.
The B.C. Lottery Corporation anticipates a significant percentage of all Lotto Max sales will take place on Friday, with the biggest peaks during in the late afternoon.
Lotto Max facts:
