Lotto dream comes true for 179 people in Germany in 2023

Millions of Germans enter their lottery tickets every week - in the hope of winning the big prize. In 2023, this will only come true for a few players, with the vast majority coming away empty-handed. The big winner, on the other hand, is the tax authorities: they collect more than three billion euros in taxes and levies.

Anything is still possible when you mark your lottery ticket with a cross. At that moment, millions are beckoning and you can already imagine all the things you could do with the big win - that longed-for trip, your own apartment. Or even a new heat pump for your heating system. At the moment you fill out the form, you seem to have it all 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 these lucky people do exist, even if there were fewer of them last year than in 2022.

On average, a good three players in Germany became new millionaires every week last year - a total of 179 people won millions, according to the German Lotto and Totoblock (DLTB). The highest sum of the year, 120 million euros, was won by a Eurojackpot player from Schleswig-Holstein last June. A total of 117 million euros went to Hamburg in August, while a lucky player from Bremen won 107 million euros - both also in Eurojackpot.

Mathematician and lottery expert Norbert Herrmann, who taught at the University of Hanover until 2007, explained years ago just how unlikely it is to win such millions: Everyone believed it would be their turn to win at some point, but the number of possibilities was far too great: "Every pick is equally likely."

4 billion in winnings distributed

As recently as November, the Federal Drug Commissioner Burkhard Blienert warned: "Gambling rarely makes its participants happy." Because gambling can also become an addiction. However, player and youth protection as well as the prevention of gambling addiction have been "firmly anchored in the social concepts and thus also in the values of the state lottery companies for over 70 years", said Sven Osthoff, Managing Director of Lotto Niedersachsen, the company in charge of the DLTB. "It is undisputed that the fight against illegal gambling providers in Germany must continue to be stepped up."

Most of the millions won in 2023 went to North Rhine-Westphalia (37), followed by Baden-Württemberg (30) and Lower Saxony (26). Large prizes of at least 100,000 euros were paid out to 1231 winners - in 2022 there were 1200 winners. In total, around €8.2 billion was spent on lotteries in Germany last year, 2.9% more than in 2022.

Axel Holthaus, also Managing Director of Lotto Niedersachsen, believes that lotteries allow people to "escape from everyday life, dream or even find happiness". Around 4.0 billion euros in winnings were paid out across all types of games - compared to 3.9 billion euros a year earlier.

13 is the rarest number

Germany's most popular lottery remained the classic "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 share was just under 50 percent. Since January 2023, new drawing machines have been in use for "6 out of 49" and the Super Number - with an additional camera inside the drum. The Eurojackpot defended its second place among the most popular lotteries with stakes of around 2.0 (2022: 1.76) billion euros and a share of just under 24% of total stakes. A year earlier, this share was just over 22 percent.

As always, only one party benefited reliably from the lotteries - the state. Last year, the state budgets collected around 3.28 (2022: 3.18) billion euros in taxes and levies - for welfare, sport, art, culture, monument preservation and environmental protection.

In the classic "6 out of 49", the winning number 19 was drawn most frequently last year, followed by the winning numbers 22, 33 and 25. The rarest number drawn from the lottery drum was 46. The number that has been drawn the least frequently since the first draw in 1955 is 13. But that is hardly enough of an insider tip for lottery players.