Canada has never had a single national lottery. Five regional Crown corporations run every legal draw, scratch ticket and lottery terminal in the country, pooling their biggest games under one interprovincial agreement. Knowing which corporation covers your province makes the rest of this guide easier to follow, from how a Lotto Max play slip is priced to where you verify a winning ticket.
Why five corporations instead of one
Lottery regulation in Canada falls under provincial jurisdiction, the same split that governs casino and sports-betting oversight. The provinces grouped into five regional Crown corporations and signed an interprovincial agreement so residents everywhere could play the same national jackpot games. The result looks unified at the ticket counter — the same Lotto Max play slip works from Victoria to St. John’s — but is administered regionally underneath. Every ticket sold in Canada is issued by one of these five bodies, mapped below.
| Corporation | Coverage | Official online platform |
|---|---|---|
| OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming) | Ontario | OLG.ca |
| Loto-Québec | Quebec | Espacejeux |
| BCLC (British Columbia Lottery Corporation) | British Columbia | PlayNow |
| WCLC (Western Canada Lottery Corporation) | Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba & the three territories | WCLC.com (mainly retail) |
| ALC (Atlantic Lottery Corporation) | Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland & Labrador | ALC.ca |
Above this regional layer sits the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, which coordinates Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 so a ticket sold by any of the five corporations feeds into the same shared jackpot pool.
See Which Corporation Covers You
Click a segment below — each is sized by how many provinces or territories that corporation covers.
What the national draws actually are
The two flagship national games are Lotto Max (Tuesday and Friday draws, jackpots resetting between roughly $10 million and a $90 million cap before Max Millions prizes are added) and Lotto 6/49 (Wednesday and Saturday draws, the older, simpler game with its classic $3 play and, since 2022, an added Gold Ball draw). Both are sold identically by all five corporations, so odds and prize structure don’t change based on which one issued your ticket. Each corporation also runs its own regional draws and instant scratch tickets that aren’t shared nationally, sold only through that corporation’s own retailers and, where available, its online platform.
Buying tickets: retail vs. online
Every corporation sells through licensed retail terminals, and most run an online platform for their province’s residents — OLG.ca ↗ in Ontario, Loto-Québec's Espacejeux ↗ in Quebec, PlayNow in British Columbia (also licensed in Manitoba and Saskatchewan), and ALC.ca in Atlantic Canada. WCLC sells mainly through retail terminals across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories. The only legitimate way to buy a ticket online is directly through your own corporation’s platform — no third-party site sells genuine Canadian lottery tickets.
Winnings, taxes and claiming a prize
For recreational players, lottery winnings in Canada aren’t taxed — the Canada Revenue Agency treats a prize as a windfall, not income (interest or investment income it later earns is a separate matter). Claim windows are set by each corporation and typically run around 12 months from the draw date, so check the deadline printed on your ticket. Our chapter on how to verify a winning ticket safely walks through the claims process step by step.
The three territories currently have no private online lottery licensing regime of their own, which makes an operator based there unregulated rather than illegal for the player — see our province-by-province legal index for the full picture. And if lottery play stops feeling like entertainment, the tools on our responsible gambling page are free and available in every province.