Mega-Sena

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The Mega-Sena is the largest lottery in Brazil, held by the Caixa Econômica Federal bank.

1 Drawings
2 Betting
3 Prizes
4 Income redistribution
5 External links

[edit] Drawings

Drawings happen twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The drawings consist of picking globes from 2 spinning spherical cages. They are picked in pairs, in order to form a 2 digit decimal number from 01 to 60. The first cage has balls ranging from 0 to 6 for the first digit, and the other one has balls ranging from 0 to 9 to be used in the second digit. In the event of the number 00 showing up, it will be replaced by the number 60 for prize purposes. When 6 unique 2 digit numbers are drawn, the drawing is concluded.

[edit] Betting

Betting instructions and information are present on the back of the betting ticket. Contestants may bet in the range of 6 to 15 numbers, out of 60, and scoring 4, 5 or 6 points will grant prizes. Bet prices escalate depending on how many possible groups of 6 numbers exist within the numbers chosen, so they vary between R$1.50 for 6 numbers (only 1 game possible) to R$7,507.50 for 15 numbers (5005 games possible). The chances of winning the biggest prize when placing a minimum bet are 1 in 50,063,860.

[edit] Prizes

Raw prizes correspond to 46% of raw income from bets. Out of this figure:

35% will go to people who scored 6 numbers.
20% will go to people who scored 5 numbers.
20% will go to people who scored 4 numbers.
25% will accumulate for a special drawing occurring once every 5 times.
Income Tax will deduct 13.8% from all the previous items. The net value for prizes is actually 32.2% of lottery earnings.

Winners have 90 days to withdraw their prizes, by presenting the winning bet ticket in either lottery houses, or the Caixa Econômica Federal bank if the prize is over R$800.00. If the 90 day period expires, prize money is transferred to the national treasury and invested in educational programs.