649 and Lotto Max

I have been buying 649 and Lotto Max for many years now. Initially I bought it because the money which is unclaimed or in surplus goes to Ontario Hospitals so seems like a donation especially as I seldom win anything! With the lockdown for COVID-19 I decided to buy my tickets on line and have been doing that ever since. I am not a gambler though and just buy the four tickets a week, two for 649 and two for Lotto Max. Occasionally I get a free ticket and very rarely I win and I did win $20 a couple of weeks ago now. Although I could easily go back to buying my tickets at the store it is so easy to buy them online that I will continue doing that far into the future. It is money well spent as one can see in the section below. At my age winning all of that money would be an enormous responsibility.

I decided to do a search to see if I am actually correct in thinking that the money goes to the hospitals and an online search gave me:

https://www.gamingpost.ca/canadian-lottery-news/where-does-your-lottery-money-go/

Ontario

To see how this system is put into practice, it’s possible to take a look at two provinces which host lotteries, online gaming and casinos through the Ontario Lotteries and Gaming Corporation (OLG). OLG is responsible for lottery games and gambling facilities throughout the province. Since it began operating in 1975, OLG has provided almost $40 billion to the citizens of Ontario. These payments help to support amateur sports through the QUEST FOR GOLD program, health care; recreational activities, scientific and medical research, education, prevention and treatment of problem gambling, arts and cultural programs and local and provincial charities.

The Ontario OLG revenues also go towards supporting the Ontario Trillium Foundation, a granting foundation which provides grants to programs throughout the province. Trillium focuses on programs that support “Active People, Green People, Inspired People, Promising Young People, Connected People and Prosperous People. Trillum’s grants, described as “Investment Seeds” fund projects in a variety of ways. They support projects at the conceptual stage, help to grow projects as they build on the success of a proven initiative, provide capital for a project’s infrastructure and facilitate collective impact as the project’s instigators work collaboratively to tackle any problems that might come up. Trillum works on the theory of chance in which changes that it believes need to happen in Ontario in order build healthy and vibrant communities are identified and addressed.

So I was partially right some of the money goes to health care and in deed mental health care but also amateur sports, scientific and medical research, education, arts and cultural programs. That is good news as I have been buying them now for over twenty years and it is good to know that the money does go towards health care, research and the other items.