Lotto 6/45

How to play: picking your six numbers

The basic game is the same wherever you play it. You pick six different numbers from a fixed pool, the operator draws six winning numbers, and you win a prize based on how many of yours match.

In Vietnam, Mega 6/45 uses a pool of 01 to 45. You choose six numbers from that range, either by filling in a play slip at a point of sale or by letting the terminal pick for you². The draw is performed once on each draw day to find six winning numbers from 01 to 45, and there are four prize categories in total².

The Philippines' Megalotto 6/45 works the same way: players select six numbers from 1 to 45 in any order³. PCSO also offers a Lucky Pick option on its lottery games, which lets the terminal generate a random combination for you if you do not have numbers in mind³.

Japan's closest equivalent is Loto 6, which uses a pool of 1 to 43 rather than 45. You pick six different numbers from that range, and the method for receiving winnings differs depending on how you bought the ticket⁶. If you are in Japan and want a pick-six game, Loto 6 is the one to look for, and it is covered in more detail on our Takarakuji page.

Vietnam also runs Power 6/55, a bigger sibling to Mega 6/45 that uses a pool of 01 to 55 and offers five prize tiers instead of four⁸. If you want a larger jackpot and do not mind longer odds, that is the alternative. Our Vietlott page covers the full product range.

Ticket price: what a line costs

Prices are set by the operator and do not vary between outlets.

In Vietnam, a Mega 6/45 entry costs VND 10,000, and the operator advertises a minimum jackpot of VND 12 billion². That is the figure Vietlott uses in its own product description, and it is the floor rather than a cap. The jackpot grows with ticket sales and rollovers.

In the Philippines, PCSO tickets are sold at PHP 20 per line across its lottery games. Megalotto 6/45 carries a minimum jackpot of PHP 15 million, which was raised from PHP 9 million effective February 2025³. The other PCSO pick-six games sit at different levels:

• Lotto 6/42 starts at PHP 10 million
• Super Lotto 6/49 at PHP 25 million
• Grand Lotto 6/55 at PHP 45 million³

Japan's Loto 6 costs JPY 200 per entry, with a theoretical first prize of JPY 200 million⁶. The theoretical value is what the prize would average out to over time, not a guaranteed amount. Actual payouts depend on sales and the number of winners.

Where to buy tickets

In Vietnam, you can buy Mega 6/45 tickets at official Vietlott points of sale and through the Vietlott SMS mobile channel¹. Vietlott has warned customers to buy only through official channels and to follow its official Fanpage and website, because counterfeit sellers have targeted lottery buyers¹⁰. If someone offers to sell you Vietlott tickets through a social media account or a private messaging app, that is not an official channel.

To play through the mobile channel, you need a betting account and a prize-receiving account set up first¹. That means the SMS route is not anonymous: your winnings are tied to a registered account rather than a paper ticket you can hand over at a counter.

In the Philippines, PCSO tickets are sold at authorized outlets across the country. Online purchase is not available directly through PCSO, and the operator's own guidance confirms that tickets must be bought at physical outlets³. If you see a website claiming to sell PCSO lotto tickets online, treat it with caution.

Japan's Loto 6 can be bought year-round at takarakuji booths, online, at ATMs of some banks, and at some convenience stores⁶. That is a wider retail footprint than either Vietnam or the Philippines, and it means you can buy a ticket at a convenience store counter without finding a dedicated lottery booth.

Prize tiers and how the pool is split

Mega 6/45 has four prize categories². The top prize goes to anyone matching all six numbers. Lower tiers pay out for matching fewer numbers, and the exact amounts depend on how many people win at each level.

When several players win the jackpot in the same draw, the prize is divided equally among them, with each winner's share corresponding to their entry value². If you bought one line and someone else bought ten, the split is not equal in absolute terms: it is proportional to what each person put in.

Power 6/55, Vietnam's larger game, has five prize tiers, and a winner receives only the highest prize tier they qualify for⁸. That rule prevents someone from collecting at multiple levels in the same draw. The Jackpot is divided equally by share value among multiple winners⁸.

In the Philippines, Megalotto 6/45 pays PHP 15 million minimum for six out of six, PHP 1.2 million shared for five out of six, and PHP 1.1 million shared for four out of six³. The word "shared" matters: those lower-tier amounts are split among all winners at that level, so the actual payout per person depends on how many tickets matched.

Japan's Loto 6 pays a theoretical JPY 200 million for the first prize and about JPY 10 million for the second prize⁶. The second prize is for matching five of the six main numbers plus the bonus number. Loto 6 has a carryover system that lifts the first prize to a maximum of JPY 600 million when a rollover occurs⁶.

Odds: 1 in 8,145,060 for the top prize

The top prize in a 6/45 game requires matching all six numbers drawn from a pool of 45. The number of possible combinations is 8,145,060, so your chance on a single line is 1 in 8,145,060.

For context, the odds of winning a 6/49 lottery are about 1 in 14 million each time you play¹². A 6/45 game has better odds than that because the pool is smaller, but the difference is not dramatic in practical terms. Both are long shots.

Buying more lines improves your chances proportionally. Ten lines give you ten chances out of 8,145,060. That is still a very small probability, and it is worth being clear-eyed about it: no system, pattern or set of "lucky" numbers changes the underlying odds.

Japan's Loto 7, which uses a pool of 37 numbers and requires matching seven, has odds of about 1 in 52,528 for the third prize alone¹³. That gives you a sense of how quickly the odds lengthen as you add numbers to match.

Rollovers and what happens when no one wins first prize

When nobody matches all six numbers, the jackpot does not disappear. It grows for the next draw.

In Vietnam, Mega 6/45 jackpots accumulate after each draw with no winner, so the prize can grow much larger than the minimum over time⁴. The same applies to Power 6/55⁴. This is why you sometimes see jackpot figures in the hundreds of billions of dong after a long run without a winner.

Japan's Loto 6 has a formal carryover rule: the total prize pool and per-entry prize of any grade with no winners, plus any amount exceeding the preset maximum, is carried over to the next draw's first prize⁶. When a carryover occurs, the first prize can reach a maximum of JPY 600 million⁶.

Other Japanese lottery products handle rollovers differently. The WINNER single-match football lottery does not have carryovers at all¹⁴. BIG, the 14-match football lottery, splits its prize fund with 80 percent going to the first prize, and the remainder is distributed across lower tiers¹⁵. DUNK carries over its first-prize pool to the next round if there is no winner or if dividend money is left over¹⁷.

In the Philippines, PCSO's Megalotto 6/45 jackpot varies based on ticket sales, and the game operates under a shared-prize consolation system³. The jackpot grows with sales rather than through a formal carryover mechanism, but the effect for players is similar: a bigger prize after a run of draws without a winner.

Claiming winnings and the deadline

In Vietnam, the claim deadline for Mega 6/45 is 60 days from the date the draw results are determined⁵. After that, the winning ticket loses its claim value. That is a firm deadline, and there is no grace period mentioned in the official rules.

You can check whether your ticket has won by scanning it at checkwin machines located at points of sale, or by checking on the Vietlott SMS app¹. If you bought through the mobile channel, your winnings are tied to your registered prize-receiving account, so the claim process works differently from a paper ticket.

In the Philippines, PCSO lotto prizes must be claimed within one year from the draw date. Unclaimed prizes are forfeited and revert to PCSO charity funds³. That is a much longer window than Vietnam's 60 days, so if you play both games, do not assume the deadlines are the same.

Thailand's Government Lottery Office pays deposited winning tickets within three business days after it has verified the tickets and there is no obstacle to payment, by check deposit or bank transfer to Krungthai Bank¹⁸. Paper tickets can be redeemed at the Government Lottery Office or at branches of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Krungthai Bank and Government Savings Bank, presenting the winning ticket with an ID card¹⁹. Online queue booking for prize claims is limited to one queue per person per day¹⁸.

Japan handles claims differently depending on how you bought the ticket: the method for receiving winnings differs depending on the purchase channel⁷. If you bought at a booth, you claim at a booth. If you bought online, the process runs through the online channel.