Biggest Lottery Jackpots in Asia

The biggest prizes in Asia, game by game

If you want to know which lottery in Asia can pay you the most, the answer depends on where you are and what you count as a "lottery." Japan's football-pool game MEGA BIG holds the region's highest published top prize, JPY 1.2 billion, but only when a carryover is in place. Vietnam's Power 6/55 has no published ceiling at all: its Jackpot 1 starts at VND 30 billion and keeps accumulating after every draw without a winner, so it can grow far beyond its starting point³.

China's Super Lotto, the flagship of the sports lottery system, caps its first prize at CNY 10 million for a basic bet and CNY 18 million if you pay the extra CNY 1 for an additional bet⁴. Hong Kong's Mark Six has no fixed jackpot figure in the same way; it is a pari-mutuel game where the prize pool depends on sales, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club sends 54 percent of dividends to winners⁶.

Here is how the headline prizes compare:

The rest of this page walks through each game: what it costs, what the prize tiers look like, how the caps work, and how carryovers and rollovers push the headline numbers higher. If you are new to how lottery prize pools are built in the first place, the page on how lotteries work covers the basics.

MEGA BIG: up to JPY 1.2 billion with carryover

MEGA BIG is the biggest prize in Japanese lottery, and it is not a number game at all. It is a football pool: for each of 12 designated soccer matches, a computer randomly picks the total goals scored in 90 minutes, with 1 or fewer goals marked as "1", exactly 2 as "2", exactly 3 as "3", and 4 or more as "4". You do not make any predictions yourself; you buy a randomly generated ticket and hope the computer's picks match the results⁷.

A single entry costs JPY 300⁷. The prize tiers are simple: 1st prize is all 12 correct, 2nd is one match wrong, 3rd is two wrong, and so on down to 6th prize with five matches wrong. The prize fund is split with 70 percent going to first prize, 14 percent to second, and the remaining 16 percent spread across the lower tiers⁷.

The headline number is the first prize. Without a carryover, MEGA BIG's first prize tops out at JPY 700 million. When a carryover is in place, the maximum rises to JPY 1.2 billion, which the operator describes as the highest prize in Japanese lottery history⁸. A carryover means money left over from a previous draw, usually because nobody won the top tier, is added to the current prize pool. MEGA BIG applies carryovers to each winning grade separately⁹.

The odds are long: first prize is 1 in 16,777,216, second prize about 1 in 466,034, and sixth prize about 1 in 87⁷. Draws go ahead as long as at least 8 of the 12 matches are played, with up to 4 matches allowed to be canceled⁷.

MEGA BIG is not the only big football pool in Japan. The regular BIG game, covering 14 matches, tops out at JPY 600 million with a carryover and JPY 300 million normally¹⁰. A 100-yen version of BIG reaches JPY 200 million with a carryover¹. And on special "BIG 777" draws, the maximum first prize is raised to JPY 700,077,000 regardless of whether a carryover exists. These special draws are held regularly: in one fiscal year they ran 21 times, generating about JPY 15.2 billion in BIG sales alone¹¹. A BIG 777 draw scheduled for September 2026 advertises the same JPY 700,077,000 top prize¹².

Loto 7: Japan's hardest odds and its prize caps

Loto 7 is Japan's traditional number game with the biggest ceiling. You pick 7 different numbers from 1 to 37, and each entry costs JPY 300². Draws are held every Friday, and the drawing is streamed live on the internet².

Seven main numbers and two bonus numbers are drawn. The bonus numbers matter only for the 2nd and 6th prizes¹³. The prize structure looks like this:

The figures come from the official game rules¹³. You cannot win twice on one entry: if your numbers qualify for two tiers, the higher tier takes priority¹³.

The cap is the interesting part. Loto 7's first prize is capped at JPY 1.2 billion when a carryover occurs². The theoretical value of the first prize is lower, around JPY 700 million, and one official comparison page puts the maximum at JPY 800 million as a theoretical value¹⁴. In practice, what you see advertised is the JPY 1.2 billion ceiling that applies on carryover draws.

Lottery winnings in Japan are not taxed. Under the Public Lottery Tickets Act, takarakuji prizes, including Loto 7, are exempt from income tax and resident tax, so a JPY 100 million winner keeps the full JPY 100 million¹⁵. The same exemption applies to football pools such as MEGA BIG, whose payouts are untaxed under the Sports Promotion Voting Act¹⁵. The roughly JPY 78.17 million take-home on a JPY 100 million win applies to public racing, where income tax takes about JPY 16.9 million and resident tax about JPY 4.93 million¹⁵.

Tickets are sold at lottery booths, online, at ATMs of some banks, and at some convenience stores, and the game is on sale every day of the year except around the year-end and New Year period². How you claim a prize depends on how you bought the ticket².

Power 6/55: Vietnam's rolling jackpot

Power 6/55 is Vietlott's flagship jackpot game and the one that produces Vietnam's biggest lottery prizes. You pick 6 numbers from 01 to 55, and a single entry costs VND 10,000³. Draws are held at 18:00 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, broadcast live on TodayTV and SCTV2 and on Vietlott's Facebook page¹⁶.

The game has two jackpots. Jackpot 1 goes to whoever matches all 6 numbers, and it starts at a minimum of VND 30 billion and accumulates³. Jackpot 2 goes to whoever matches 5 numbers plus the bonus number. If several people win a jackpot, it is divided equally among them in proportion to the value of their entries³.

Below the jackpots are three fixed tiers: first prize of VND 40 million for matching 5 numbers, VND 500,000 for 4 numbers, and VND 50,000 for 3 numbers. A winner receives only the highest tier they qualify for³.

What makes Power 6/55 different from the Japanese games is that there is no published ceiling. Vietlott's own guidance explains that jackpots accumulate after each draw with no winner, so prizes can at times be far larger than the starting figure¹⁷. This is the same rolling-jackpot mechanic used in Mega 6/45, Vietlott's other big game, and it is why the biggest Power 6/55 prizes in Vietnam's lottery history have run well past the VND 30 billion minimum.

You can also play bao combinations, which buy many entries at once. Pick 5 numbers and the software chooses the 6th from the remaining 50, creating 50 entries. The full range runs from Bao 5 up to Bao 18, with combinations in between at 7, 28, 84, 210, 462, 924, 1,716, 3,003 and 5,005 entries, and Bao 18 covering the most combinations of all¹⁶. You can buy up to 6 draws in advance¹⁶.

Vietlott's wider lineup includes Mega 6/45, Power 6/55, Max 3D and its variants, Keno, Bingo18 and Lotto 5/35¹⁸. If you want to compare the two jackpot games side by side, the page on pick-6 lotto games in Asia has the details.

Super Lotto (大乐透): China's sports lottery and its prize tiers

Super Lotto, known in Chinese as 大乐透, is issued and sold by the Sports Lottery Administration Center of the General Administration of Sport¹⁹. It is China's biggest lottery game by prize size.

The format is a two-zone pick. You choose 5 front numbers from 01 to 35 and at least 2 back numbers from 01 to 12, up to 4⁴. Draws are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 21:25. After the sales data are sealed, five front numbers and two back numbers are drawn at random under notary supervision¹⁹.

A basic bet costs CNY 2. For CNY 1 more, you can place an additional bet (追加), which boosts your payout on the top tiers: a first prize won with an additional bet pays 80 percent extra on top of the corresponding basic prize²⁰. The caps are CNY 10 million for a basic bet first prize and CNY 18 million for an additional bet⁴.

The prize ladder has seven tiers²¹:

Of every yuan staked, 51 percent goes to the prize fund, 13 percent to the issuance fee and 36 percent to the public welfare fund. Within the floating prize money, 49 percent goes to the jackpot pool and 2 percent to an adjustment pool²⁰. You can bet multiple draws at once, with a multi-draw range of 2 to 99 consecutive draws and a multiplier range of 2 to 99 times¹⁹.

Mark Six: Hong Kong's pick-6-from-49 game

Mark Six is Hong Kong's lottery, run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club alongside its horse racing and football betting²³. It is a 6-out-of-49 game: six numbers plus a special number are drawn from 1 to 49⁵.

On a single entry you pick six numbers. On a multiple entry you pick at least seven numbers from the 49, and every six-number combination within your selection counts as a separate chance²⁴. This is the same system-bet logic used across Asia, explained in more detail on the page about lottery system bets.

Mark Six does not publish a jackpot cap the way the Japanese and Chinese games do. It is pari-mutuel: the prize pool depends on how much is staked. Of Mark Six turnover, 54 percent is paid as dividends to winners, 15 percent goes to the Lotteries Fund and 6 percent is the Club's commission²⁵. That means a big sales week produces a bigger first division prize, and a rollover of the first division pool can push the next draw's top prize up further.

How carryovers and rollovers push jackpots higher

Almost every big lottery number you see advertised in Asia is a carryover number. A carryover happens when prize money from one draw, usually an unwon top tier, is added to the pool of a later draw. In Japan this mechanism is built into the rules and into the advertising: MEGA BIG is "up to JPY 1.2 billion" only when a carryover is in place, and the same applies to BIG at JPY 600 million and to Loto 7 at JPY 1.2 billion¹.

The caps themselves have history. In February 2017, Japan raised the maximum first prize with carryover for Loto 7 and Loto 6 by JPY 200 million each, to JPY 1 billion and JPY 600 million respectively²⁶. Loto 6, the smaller sibling where you pick 6 from 43, still carries that JPY 600 million carryover ceiling today²⁷.

Not every Japanese game has a carryover. The WINNER instant-style sports lottery states plainly that no carryover occurs²⁸. And special editions are excluded from the standard MEGA BIG figures, which is why BIG 777 draws with their JPY 700,077,000 top prize sit outside the usual JPY 600 million BIG ceiling⁸.

Vietnam works differently. Power 6/55 and Mega 6/45 do not publish a maximum at all; the jackpot simply accumulates after each draw without a winner¹⁷. This is the rolling-jackpot model familiar from North American and European games, and it is why Vietnam's record prizes have come from these two games rather than from any fixed-cap product. The mechanics of both approaches, carryovers and open-ended rollovers, are compared on the page about jackpot rollovers and snowballs.

Ticket prices, odds and who can play

Here is the practical summary for a first ticket:

On age: Japanese sports lottery tickets, including MEGA BIG, cannot be bought by or transferred to anyone under 19, and under-19s cannot receive payouts either⁹. In Vietnam, Power 6/55 players must be at least 18, and people with restricted or lost civil act capacity are excluded¹⁶. In China, lottery tickets may not be sold to minors and prizes may not be paid to them¹⁹.

On who may play: Power 6/55 is open to Vietnamese citizens, Vietnamese people settled abroad, and foreigners who enter Vietnam legally¹⁶. If you bet by mobile phone, you need both a betting account and a prize-receiving account¹⁶. For Japan, the practical point is where you buy: Loto 7 is sold at booths, online, at some bank ATMs and at some convenience stores, with different opening times at each¹⁴.

For a broader comparison of odds across the region's games, see lottery odds in Asia, and for ticket prices across all the major games, the page on lottery ticket prices.

Where and how to check results and claim prizes

Each game has its own checking channels, and none of them requires you to wait for a newspaper.

In Japan, MEGA BIG and BIG results can be checked four ways.

1. On the official sports lottery website, click "当せん確認", select the lottery type and draw number, enter your reference number and click "結果を表示"²⁹.
2. If you bought online, log in to Club toto and use the "購入履歴・当せん確認" menu, where you can filter by product, purchase period and result³⁰.
3. In person, results can be checked at lottery counters and at 7-Eleven stores; in-store checking is limited to those two channel types³¹.
4. For Loto 7, results are available around the clock on PC and smartphone, in newspapers the day after the draw, or by handing your ticket to booth staff during the claim period; winning numbers can also be checked through Mizuho Bank's announcement service¹³.

How you receive Loto 7 winnings depends on how you bought the ticket². Japan's Jumbo Lottery tickets can be checked at sales offices in all prefectures and the 20 designated cities nationwide³².

In Vietnam, Vietlott tickets can be scanned at checkwin machines at points of sale or checked on the Vietlott SMS app³³. Power 6/55 draws are broadcast live on TodayTV and SCTV2 and on Vietlott's Facebook fanpage¹⁶.

In South Korea, if you win KRW 100 million or more on a printed or electronic combined lottery ticket, your identity is verified at Donghaeng Lottery Co. and the prize is paid at a designated NH Nonghyup Bank branch³⁴.

For claim deadlines, ID requirements and payment methods across the region, see how to claim a lottery prize in Asia, and for what happens to prizes nobody collects, unclaimed lottery prizes.