Belgium Lottery

When the draws take place

Lotto is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday evenings at 7:00 p.m. (CET), with ticket sales for that draw closing at 7:00 p.m. Results are published the same evening on the National Lottery website and app.

How the game works

To play Lotto, you choose 6 numbers from 1 to 45. Each grid (combination) costs €1.50 (about US$1.60). On draw night, 6 winning numbers plus 1 bonus number are drawn from the 45 balls. Match all six main numbers to win or share the jackpot, which starts at a guaranteed €1 million and increases by €500,000 each draw it is not won. If several players match all six, the jackpot is shared equally.

Every €1.50 grid also comes with a Lucky Lotto Code, a separate guaranteed-prize feature. More than 50,000 codes win a prize in every draw, and in the draw held on the last Saturday of each month one code wins a house.

Odds and prizes

Lotto has nine prize tiers. The top tiers are variable and depend on the pool and the number of winners, while the lower tiers pay fixed amounts. The overall average chance of winning a prize is about 1 in 9.4. Here is the full breakdown:

The Lotto game itself pays jackpots that usually run from its €1 million minimum up to a few million euros. The National Lottery’s very largest prizes have come from EuroMillions, which it also sells: a EuroMillions ticket in Belgium is reported to have won around €168 million in 2013, the largest lottery prize in the country’s history.

Because Belgian winners can choose to remain anonymous, most big winners are never publicly named. (The specific EuroMillions record figure above was not re-verified from an official source for this guide and is worth confirming before publishing.)

Belgium’s National Lottery traces its roots to 1934, and the Lotto game launched in 1978. Over the years the game’s format and features have been updated, including the addition of the Lucky Lotto Code guaranteed-prize element. Today the National Lottery operates as a state-owned public company and remains the only operator permitted to run these draw games nationally.

You can play Lotto two main ways:

In-store: from thousands of licensed National Lottery retailers across Belgium. Fill out a play slip or ask for a random selection.
Online: through the official National Lottery website and app, available to registered players located in Belgium. You can also play several draws in advance.

Lotto is a Belgian game and is not sold internationally, so you need to be in Belgium to play. You must be 18 or older.

How to claim a prize

How you claim depends on the amount:

Up to €100,000: claim at a National Lottery shop with your winning ticket and a valid photo ID.
Above €100,000: the winner support team invites you to claim in person at the head office in Brussels, and the prize is paid by bank transfer.

Online winnings are credited to your account automatically. Prizes must be claimed within 140 days of the draw, and there are real cases of tickets going unclaimed, so check your numbers promptly.

Taxes on winnings

Belgium does not tax lottery winnings. Whatever you win, you keep in full, with no deduction at the time of payment. The National Lottery even provides a certificate confirming the origin of the money.

The usual caveat applies to what you do next: any income you later earn by investing your winnings can be taxed in the normal way, so professional advice is sensible for a large win.

Can you stay anonymous?

Yes. Belgian Lotto winners can choose to remain anonymous. The National Lottery does not publish winners’ identities without their consent, and the certificate of origin it provides lets winners show where the money came from without going public.