Lotto Super 7 was a national lottery

Lottery

A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...

 game in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, operated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation

Interprovincial Lottery Corporation

The Interprovincial Lottery Corporation is an organization that operates lottery games in Canada. It is owned jointly by the five provincial lottery commissions. ILC's headquarters are located in Toronto, Ontario....

 (ILC). It was launched in 10 June 1994, and its last draw was on 18 September 2009.

Drawn every Friday night, the lottery had guaranteed jackpots of $

Canadian dollar

The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

2.5 million, which was carried forward to the next draw if no purchased ticket matched all seven numbers in that draw. The largest jackpot awarded was in May 2002, in which four winning tickets shared a $37.8 million jackpot.

Its final draw date was announced by ILC in March 2009, and in July 2009, ILC announced that it would be replaced by a new game, Lotto Max

Lotto Max

Lotto Max is a Canadian lottery game that began sales on September 19, 2009. The first set of winning numbers were drawn on September 25, 2009, and subsequent draws have been held every Friday. It replaced Lotto Super 7 in September 2009....

.

Organization

ILC works with various lottery corporations owned by provincial governments

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

. Profits are shared amongst the various retailers who sell tickets. Retailers receive from the lottery a percentage of the winnings for tickets sold from their shop (the money is not taken from the prize award).

Prize structure

Lotto Super 7 involved picking seven numbers from 1 through 47. The prizes ranged from a free play to the jackpot. Prizes were awarded as follows:

Match	Prize	Odds of Winning per $2 play
7/7	Jackpot (Share of 73% of Pools Fund)	1: 20,963,833
6/7+	Share of 5% of Pools Fund	1: 2,994,883
6/7	Share of 5% of Pools Fund	1: 76,791
5/7	Share of 17% of Pools Fund	1: 1,280
4/7	$10.00	1: 60.6
3/7+	$10.00	1: 65.5
3/7	Free Play	1: 7.3

Note: The fixed prizes for 3 of 7, 3 of 7+ Bonus and 4 of 7 were payable from the Prize Fund (45% of sales). The remainder was the Pools Fund, from which all other pari-mutuel shares of prizes were paid. The "+" symbol denotes matching the bonus number.

Purchasing tickets

Tickets for Super 7 were sold in each of the five lottery jurisdictions: British Columbia Lottery Corporation

British Columbia Lottery Corporation

The British Columbia Lottery Corporation is a Crown Corporation of the Province of British Columbia, Canada.It has provided government sanctioned lottery services in British Columbia since 1985...

, Western Canada Lottery Corporation

Western Canada Lottery Corporation

The Western Canada Lottery Corporation is a non-profit organization founded in 1974 that operates lottery and gaming-related activities for its members, the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut participate as associate members...

, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation , known for corporate branding purposes simply as OLG since 2006, is a Crown Corporation of the Government of Ontario, Canada. It is responsible for the province's lotteries, charity and Aboriginal casinos, commercial casinos, and slot machines at...

, Loto-Québec

Loto-Québec

Loto-Québec is a government agency that develops and operates lotteries in the province of Quebec, Canada.-Loto-Québec's mission:Loto-Québec is a Québec government corporation whose mandate is to operate games of chance in the province in an orderly and measured way. It was created in 1969 to...

 and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation

Atlantic Lottery Corporation

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation , currently branded as simply Atlantic Lottery or Loto Atlantique, is an organization that operates lottery games in Atlantic Canada. It is owned jointly by the four Atlantic provincial governments: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland...

. Tickets were purchased until the cutoff time of 9:00 p.m. ET on Friday nights. For every $2 spent, three selections of seven numbers were given. In addition, each jurisdiction had an add-on regional game.

In the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, the add on game was called the Extra, and offered players a maximum prize of $250,000. The Extra was a seven-digit number. Players won money by matching numbers from the end (i.e., in the number 1234567, matching the 7 won $2, matching 67 won $10, etc.)

In Ontario, the add on game was called Encore. The largest possible prize for Encore (all 7 digits match) was $1 million.

In Quebec, the add on game was called Extra. The largest possible prize for Extra (all 7 digits match) was $500,000.

In Atlantic Canada, the add on game was called Tag. The largest possible prize for Tag (all 6 digits match) was $100,000.

Advertising

The Super 7 radio and TV ads were part of a marketing campaign featuring seven "super heroes". They usually began with the catchphrase "because you can!" and the super hero repeated the phase at the end of the commercial, with the next jackpot amount listed. Commercials usually aired as a pair, such as Relaxo and 2 Weeks Notice Man.

They were:

• 2 Weeks Notice Man
• Relaxo
• The Splurger
• Cosmetica
• Jesse Streets
• Professor Posh
• The Destinator

Catchphrases

"Unleash the power of the Super 7!"

"Because you can! With this Friday's (jackpot amount) Lotto Super 7 jackpot!" (2007-2009)